


Mismatched

by Engineerd



Category: Gilmore Girls
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-21
Updated: 2016-11-02
Packaged: 2018-07-25 21:02:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 22,710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7547187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Engineerd/pseuds/Engineerd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>No one knows what Luke's soulmate mark says. Lorelai takes a bet that she can find out. </p><p>A story of how two people can be so obvious and yet oblivious at the same time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

Luke’s parents had been soulmates. They’d been fiercely in love with each other, every second of every day, and it showed. In the way they led their lives, raised their kids, run their business, everything.

In a way, it even showed after Luke’s mom died. His dad was never the same after that.

It had made Luke angry, for a long time. People always talk about the benefits of finding your soulmate, besides just the romantic gooey part. Psychology studies have proven that two soulmates in love can feel each other’s emotions, even if they’re far away. Medical studies said that two soulmates in love can even heal physical injuries, making them less intense, speeding up the healing process. If you get a cut on your hand, your soulmate will wake up with a matching cut. Halves the damage, doubles recovery rate. This only happened with soulmates in love, of course. Soulmates who hadn’t met, or didn’t love each other, didn’t get any of these little bonuses.

Of course, Luke’s parents had loved each other to the core, but there was no recovery to speed when there was no recovery at all. Luke’s mom died from cancer when he was 10, and Dad survived for a decade longer. He still died too damn young. Luke wasn’t sure whether the sickness had claimed him in the end, or just a broken heart.

So, suffice to say, as a young man Luke wasn’t too enthusiastic about looking for the soulmate.  

In the middle of his right bicep, in medium-sized black letters, read _One Cup of Coffee, Please._ The first thing his soulmate would ever say to him. It wasn’t the first thing Rachel ever said to him, that’s for sure, but she was a free spirit and wasn’t too keen on destiny controlling her life either, so they got on, for a while. Anna was the same way. However, the older he got, the more people were settling down, and the less options there were for casual dating.

He decided to open a diner.

* * *

 Lorelai met Christopher when she was 12 years old. They were at a Memorial Day party thrown by Christopher’s parents, who had just moved to Hartford from Providence. Lorelai was just settling into her sarcastic, rebellious phase, and Chris was the only human even remotely close to her age. He was standing by the back window of the Hayden’s mansion, gazing longingly at the grass outside, and she came up behind him at said, “You look like a caged canary.”

 He whipped around and gasped. “Oh my god,” he said, “it’s you!”

She frowned. “What’s me?”

 He didn’t seem to pick up on her confusion, a grin breaking out across his face. “You’re pretty,” he declared, looking her up and down. “But we’re only twelve! You’re twelve, right? Isn’t this too early? I always thought you had to be a real-grown up for this.”

“For what?” Lorelai asked, still confused, and he seemed to slow down for the first time.

“Come on,” he said slowly, like she was an idiot. He untucked his button-down shirt from his pants, looked around from adults, and then lifted the shirt up so she could see the words printed on his skin, just left of his belly button. _You Look Like a Caged Canary,_ it read solemnly.

“You’re my soulmate,” he said wistfully, and he was staring at her with big blue eyes and Lorelai felt like the air was being sucked out of her lungs.

 “Well, that can’t be right,” she said. She unbuttoned the top of her cardigan and pulled at the top of the neckline of the shirt, so he could see her soulmate mark printed right over her heart. Mother would say it’s indecent, showing a boy most of her breast like that, but she made sure he could read the _Sit Down, Shut Up, and Wait Your Turn,_ clearly printed there.

 The boy looked pained. “Oh,” he said, wide-eyed, and re-tucked his pants. “I...do you think there’s a mistake?”

 “I don’t think soulmate marks make mistakes,” she said, letting her collar snap back into place.

 “But...it’s you. I know it’s you,” he said, and he circled around her, and finally announced, “I’m Christopher Hayden.”

 “Lorelai Gilmore,” she declared back at him.

 Chris and Lorelai never told their parents about that meeting. It was a their little secret, between the two of them, and despite the awkward guilty feeling in her gut, Chris was nothing but nice to her. He was more than nice - he concocted up plans with her, he complained about his parents, they broke into the wine cellar together, they snuck out after school - they were partners in crime, for years.

 When Lorelai was fourteen, and Christopher had liberated his dad’s car and had illegally driven them out for fast food, and he bought her milkshakes and the awkward guilty feeling was threatening to bubble over, she kissed him.

 He stood stock-still as soon as she did it, and she backed away, a little embarrassed. “I just wanted to see what it was like,” she muttered, looking down. The car was behind them and she was considering making a break for it, when a smile broke out over his face and he dropped both bags of chicken nuggets on the parking lot concrete.

 “God, Lor,” he said, crossing the distance between them and cradling her head in his hands. “I knew you’d come around,” he said, and he kissed her again.

 They dated, for a while. Chris was ecstatic, and Lorelai let herself be happy. After all, she was Chris’s soulmate, and he loved her for it. He loved her.

They dated, for a while, until Lorelai got pregnant, and they got into a fight. _The_ fight.

 Chris wanted to marry her. “Why not?” he asked, frustrated, ring thrown on the ground between them. “Maybe this was supposed to happen! Our parents approve, it’ll be good for the baby, and I don’t mind working at your dad’s firm, Lor. Everything will be ok-”

 “We’re too young, Chris!” she interrupted. She could feel tears prickling behind her eyes, and she  “We’re only sixteen! This isn’t a sign from the universe, it’s a sign of improper condom usage!”

 “We’re not too young! Soulmates get married this young all the time!”

 At this, Lorelai burst into tears. She was pregnant, and her hormones were out of control, and Chris wrapped her up in his arms and buried his head in her hair. She clutched at his sweater and sobbed into his shoulder, tears being soaked up by the expensive knit wool.

He let her cry for a minute. “I’m not your soulmate,” he said, finally, dully. “You’re mine, but I’m not...I’m not yours.”

“I’m so sorry,” she cried, sobbing even harder. “I think we just got mismatched, or something. I’m _so sorry,_ Chris.”

“I’ve heard of this happening.” He swallowed. “To other people. I just never thought it would be me. You know?” He rubbed her back. “Are you sure we can’t try, Lor? I’ll do my best to make you happy, you know I will.” He voice cracked. _“Please.”_

She clutched at him tightly, and then pushed away.  “You have no idea how much I wish…” her voice wobbled again. “How much I want to want you.”

He didn’t attempt to pull her back. “Are you going to keep the baby?”

“Of course I’m going to keep the baby,” she snapped.

He nodded, eyes distant. “Let me know how it goes,” he said, eyes distant. Lorelai saw him again once, the day she gave birth, and then not after that for a long time.

She ended up telling her parents. It was five months after Rory was born, and it was dinner and her Mom was harping at her that _if only she had married Christopher when he asked,_ and she cracked.

“But he’s not the one, Mom!”

Her parents looked at her as if she was crazy, and Lorelai realized she couldn’t stay there, not with a bunch of people who thought propriety was was more important than love. She packed up her things and left with Rory the very next Monday.

* * *

 The first time Luke heard his magic phrase, his heart stopped.

He was 23, and it was his second working as a waiter for Bud and Maisy at their restaurant, Sniffy’s. He asked some businesswoman what she wanted to order, and she said, “One cup of coffee, please,” and you could have knocked him over with a feather, because she must have been fifty years old, and not his type, and luckily she didn’t seem to pay him much attention as he stammered something and ran straight back into the kitchen. 

“Bud,” he said, screeching to a halt right in front of his mentor, and panting, “There’s a woman - an old woman - and she said, and I ran- ” Bud didn’t seem to be understanding, so Luke raised the sleeve of his t-shirt and shoved his arm into Bud’s face. “See?” he asked desperately, his voice to a much higher octave. “She ordered coffee!”

Bud stared at his arm for a second and sighed. “Luke, son,” he said gruffly. “Did she react at all to you?”

Luke frowned. “No, not really.”

“And you want to open a diner?”

“Yes,” he answered, a little impatient.

“I hate to break it to you,” Bud said, “But hundreds of people’s first words to you will be ordering coffee.”

Luke wasn’t particularly looking for his soulmate, but the news still made his heart sink into the pit of his stomach. “What?” he questioned, rather dumbly.

Bud clapped him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about it,” he said. “You can still find your soulmate. Loads of folks have really common phrases - you’ll just have to trust your lady friend to point it out to you. She’ll react when she hears your first words. Trust me, a big, handsome guy like you - she’ll react.”

Luke took a deep breath. “So the old lady out there - not my soulmate?” he asked.

Bud shook his head.

“Thank god!” Luke exclaimed, and Bud laughed.

Luke eventually opened his own diner, and it was a huge success. He had lots of business, a good mix of regulars and tourists exploring the town for its festivals, and Bud’s prophecy came true. Guys and girls, all ages, asked him for One Cup of Coffee, Please, and Luke got used to it. He heard the phrase so often it barely registered anymore.

There was a close call, once, the year he turned 30. It was an especially crowded spring day - there were a lot of people around for the summer solstice festival, or something stupid like that, and it was the height of his mid-morning rush and one particularly pushy woman leaned between two people sitting at the counter and said, “One cup of coffee, please,” and Luke, busy as he was, barked, “Sit down, shut up, and wait your turn,” and she just sort of froze for a second.

Luke glanced at her, and it looked a little like she was going to cry. “Aw, geez, m’am, I didn’t mean to snap at you, I’m just very busy right now. Do you want a table?”

She looked up at him. “I want a coffee,” she said flatly, and continued being very rude to him until she got it, and didn’t even leave a tip when she left.

Anyways, Lorelai was the closest of a reaction he’d ever gotten, but as he got to know her, he realized Lorelai wasn’t the type to keep things to herself. The way she chattered? She definitely would have told him.     

Luke kept the horoscope around, though. He didn’t want to cheat on his future soulmate - whoever they were - but he couldn’t quite shake the feeling that Lorelai was something special.

* * *

 It was two weeks after Lorelai and Rory had moved into their new house, and Lorelai had dropped Rory off at school when she decided to celebrate her new financial responsibility by splurging on some non-Independence Inn coffee, for the first time in what felt like years. People in town always seemed to mention Luke’s diner positively, so she poked in there for the first time on a Monday in spring.

Apparently Luke’s was as good as people made it out to be, because business was booming. She fought her way through the line of people at the cash register and apologetically squeezed in between Andrew and one of his friends sitting at the counter, so she could get the attention at the guy with his back turned to her behind the counter. “Excuse me,” Lorelai said to Andrew, who smiled back at her, and then she said loudly, “One cup of coffee, please.”

 “Sit down, shut up, and wait your turn,” the guy snarled, not turning around.

 Lorelai froze. This was it, the moment she had been waiting for. He would turn around and they would be soulmates, and it would make every hardship worth it, the fights with Christopher and her parents, and running away, all of it. This was him! He was tall, and broad-shouldered, and when he turned around and made eye contact...there was no sign of recognition in his eye.

She frowned. This should be it, it should be just like when she were twelve with the _Oh my god, it’s you, you’re my soulmate,_ and why was he frowning at her like that?

“Oh, geez, m’am,” he apologized. “I didn’t mean to snap at you, I’m just really busy right now.”

And all of the sudden it _hit_ her, and it felt like she was falling into a black hole. She had been mismatched again. She wasn’t it for Christopher, and this guy wasn’t it for her. She found her soulmate. She wasn’t his soulmate.

He was looking really concerned how. “Do you want a table?” he asked.

She decided then, split-second, that she could never do to anyone what Christopher had done to her, however inadvertently. She wasn’t going to saddle anyone with that kind of guilt or expectation. She wasn’t even going to see this guy again, if she could help it. Pulling together whatever sort of mask she could muster, she made sure her face was blank and replied, “I want a coffee.”

“Just a few minutes,” he assured her, coming out from behind the counter, and _god,_ he was so pretty, she wanted to cry from the unfairness of it. “There’s a table right there in the corner.”

“But there’s a large pot of the black elixir of life behind your counter,” she argued.

He sighed, and led the way over to the corner table. “Here or to go?”

“To go,” she said quickly, not sitting down, following him back behind the counter.

“I’ll be right with y- geez, what are you doing? You can’t follow me back here!”

“Give me the coffee!” she yelled, and she was being a little ridiculous, but her heart was broken, _so what._

He got a stubborn gleam in his eye, and took her by the shoulders and manhandled her back to the corner table, pushing her into the seat. “Stay here and I’ll get it for you when I get to it,” he ordered, and reached behind him to grab something from a nearby self. “Here’s the paper to entertain you while I’m gone.”

“Wait,” she said, snatching his wrist to stop him as he turned away, but releasing it like she had been burned. “How can I call you back?”

He studied her. “I’m Luke, I own the place,” he said, gesturing to the sign outside.

“Duke?” she asked. He sighed and walked away.

After several minutes of him clearly avoiding giving her coffee, she stood back up again and marched to the counter. “Duke!” she shouted. He didn’t look at her, so she asked, “When’s your birthday?”

He looked up at that. “November 6th,” he said warily, and she slammed the newspaper on the counter and started scribbling with a pen she found in her purse. Satisfied, she tore the strip out and handed it to him.

He laughed at her caption under Scorpio. “Alright, alright,” he agreed, handing her a giant to-go cup. “That’ll be 95 cents.”

She all but threw her change at him, grabbed the coffee and left.

As she strolled back down the sidewalk towards home, she decided to call in sick to work that day. This was a big day in her life, and even if she didn’t ever tell anyone, it would always be the day she met _the one._ Loads of couples celebrated that.

She bitterly took a sip of Luke’s coffee, and _damn_ if it wasn’t delicious.She took a second sip and picked up her pace home. This was a sick joke from the universe, she could tell. She hadn’t been there for Christopher, so she would get written off too. It would have been the perfect time to meet her soulmate. She was a real adult now, 27, and she had her own house, and the perfect kid, and a good job, and she was settled and ready to start a life with a partner, a real partner. Luke would have been perfect too, she could tell. She didn’t know much, except that he was tall and gorgeous and owned his own successful business and made the world’s best coffee-

  
Lorelai reached home and settled herself down for her longest wallowing session of all time.


	2. West-Side Solidarity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A challenged is issued.

The problem with Luke was that the more Lorelai annoyed him, the more he seemed to like her. The problem with Luke liking her was that he went out of his way to get to know her, and she got to know him. The problem with getting to know Luke was that Lorelai fell head-over-heels in love with him, in the complete soulmate destiny kind of way. 

The problem with being in love with Luke was that she could never tell a soul that she was in love with Luke, and that made life extremely difficult sometimes. 

* * *

“Mom,” Rory whispered to Lorelai conspiratorially. It was Rory’s second day of 10th grade at Stars Hollow High, and as much as Lorelai missed her baby girl, a teenage Rory to conspire with was amazing. “It’s 80 degrees out.”

“I know,” Lorelai whispered back, ducking her head down. “Is the weather a secret?”

“It is to Luke, apparently!” Rory said, gesturing with her head towards the man behind the counter. “I swear, I have never seen him in short sleeves. Not once all summer. Have you seen him in short sleeves?”

“I think cooks are supposed to have long sleeves, hun,” she said. “Sookie has her special chef-jacket thing, and she complains about it all the time when it’s hot out.”

“But even in town meetings!” Rory exclaimed. “We’ve seen him in shorts and flannel. Fourth of July, he was wearing swim trunks and that flannel shirt.”

“Maybe he’s worn it so long it got attached to him like a second skin,” Lorelai suggested. 

Rory sat back in her chair. “I wonder what he’s hiding,” she mused. “Tattoo gone bad? Birthmark?”

Miss Patty, sitting at the next table, leaned over. “His soulmate mark is on one of his arms,” she said. “The right one, I think.” 

“Oh?” Rory asked conspiratorially, leaning towards her, shooting Lorelai a mischievous look. Lorelai did her best to make sure her face was similarly mischievous and gossip-y, not nervous. 

“Give us the scoop,” Lorelai encouraged, smiling. 

“Well, nobody knows what it says anymore, except the man himself,” Miss Patty explained. “He’s kept it covered for years - since high school. No one remembers it, so it must have not been that uncommon, but still he covers up like a monk.”

“The monkiest,” Lorelai agreed, exchanging a glance with Rory again. “Oh! Maybe we’ve stumbled upon the reason for the baseball cap. Luke, the monk, is bald.”

“Luke isn’t bald,” Rory argued, looking around. “See! You can see his hair sticking out the back.”

“But maybe he shaves the top of his head like those guys with the robes do!” Lorelai exclaimed. 

Miss Patty snorted. “He barely shaves his face.” 

“Are you guys talking about me?” Luke asked from behind them, pot of coffee in hand.

Rory made a squeaking noise as she whipped around, and Miss Patty quickly turned back to her own table as well. Rory grabbed Lorelai’s arm and buried her face behind her mother’s shoulder. 

Lorelai glanced at the two of them. “Traitors,” she muttered. 

“You’re his favorite,” Rory mumbled. 

“Go in for the kill!” Patty hissed. 

Lorelai huffed, flipped her hair over her shoulder, and fixed Luke with her most penetrating stare. “We were not talking about you,” she said, as seriously as she could, reaching for her coffee mug to take a nonchalant sip when she realized it was empty. “And it would be very egotistical of you to assume we were.” 

Luke stared back at her. “In own my diner?” he sighed. “You’re talking about me behind me back in my very own diner?”

Lorelai cleared her throat, which had suddenly gone dry under Luke’s accusation. She flicked her cup with her nails instead to create that nice chink-ing sound. “Could I get a refill?”

He rolled his eyes and started walking away, leaving her mug beverageless.

“Luke! No!” Lorelai cried, pushing Rory off her shoulder and staggering up out of her seat, snagging her empty mug on the way. “Coffee! Come back!”

The spot across the counter from him was mercifully empty, and she slammed into it, holding the mug in front of her face with a pout. “Please, Luke?” she said, using her best impression of toddler Rory begging for something. “I promise to be good.”

He stared at her so intensely, Lorelai forgot what she was asking for. 

When she had stumbled out of Luke’s diner all those years ago, she really did mean to swear off the establishment and its owner entirely. She lasted about a month before her curiosity got the better of her, and she went back for more coffee. It really was the best coffee in the entire world, so she couldn’t help going back a third time. And a fourth.

She stuck with her “Duke” routine for a while there, hoping it would keep him at arm’s length. It had seemed to be working, for a little while, until she realized that Luke was spending a little more time at her table, waving the menus a little more in her face, underlining his name on her receipts, and altogether taking a special interest in her.

So Lorelai abruptly changed tactics, calling him by Luke and treating him as friendly and casual as anyone else in Stars Hollow. Sadly, this didn’t work either. The smile on his face the first time she called him by his real name could have lit up the town’s Christmas pageant by itself. Luke seemed to take the sudden friendliness as a sign that he had finally broken through to her, and started teasing her back, like a friend. 

Being friends with Luke was heaven and hell wrapped up in one flannel package. 

“Lorelai?”

She realized she’d been staring at his lips and not paying attention to a word he was saying. “What?”

He leaned forward against the counter. “I asked, how many?”

She stared at him, confused. “Zero?” she guessed. 

“You’ve had zero cups of coffee today,” he said, disbelieving, staring pointedly at her empty mug. 

Ah. Her purpose. “Zero, plus...one. And you know how much coffee I drink. One cup for me is dangerously low. I might die of withdrawal.” She gave him her best pouty face. 

He rolled his eyes. “Zero plus one is one, Lorelai,” he huffed, but he refilled her mug all the same. 

She smiled warmly at her coffee, and looked up in time to catch him looking at her. “I love coffee,” she blurted out stupidly, holding the eye contact.

Luke gave her a small smile. “I know you do,” he said. 

* * *

“Lorelai, sugar,” Babette greeted her, rising from the porch swing of Lorelai’s front porch. “How was work?”

“Hi, Babette,” she said back nonchalantly, locking the car behind her as she approached her front steps. Really, she was used to the neighbors by now. “Pretty good today. Sookie’s still head-over-heels for Jackson, and all our food is still vegetable themed. I don’t know how much more zucchini bread I can take.”

“Young love,” Babette replied dreamily. “I remember the day I first met Morey, you know. He didn’t talk back right away, but when he did, WHAM! There’s nothing like that first meeting on this planet.”

Lorelai nodded as she brushed past her neighbor to unlock the front door. “Do you want to come in, or did you just want to chat?”

“I’ve actually got a bit of a favor to ask,” Babette admitted, accepting the invitation and stepping into the house. 

Lorelai set her purse down on the table next to the door, looking around for Rory’s note (it was tucked into the corner of the mirror, as always.  _ Hi Mom! At Lane’s, be back for dinner _ ). “Shoot,” she said. “Me and Rory are always up for cat-sitting.”

“It’s actually not about Cinnamon,” Babette said. “I actually need a bit of west-side solidarity.”

Lorelai brightened. “West-side solidarity! Who are we fighting, the sharks or the jets? Oh, don’t tell me, is it our ultimate rival?”

“East-Side Tilly,” Babette confirmed solemnly. “She challenged me and Patty today.”

“East-Side Tilly,” Lorelai spat, quite enjoying the competition. “She’s been giving you and Miss Patty trouble for years. East-Side thinks they’re so great, just because they’re a little closer to the highway. The west-side of Stars Hollow is where the coffee shops are, did they think of that?” 

“No, she did not!” Babette crowed. “So, are you in, sugar?”

“Of course I am,” Lorelai said. “I’m always ready to take down those who challenge our turf.”

“Great, we really need you for some espionage. Tilly said she could find out something faster than we could. ”

“Well, we can’t let her win.” Lorelai said. “Who am I spying on?”

Babette leaned in. “We need you to find out what Luke’s soulmate mark says.”

_ “What?”   _ Lorelai said. “Luke?” A realization dawned on her. “Oh, no. Miss Patty got the idea from Rory this morning. Oh, no, Miss Patty said he’d been keeping it private for years. It’s impossible. Can’t be done.”

“If anyone could do it, you could,” Babette insisted. “He’s got a thing for you.”

Lorelai groaned. “Luke does not have a ‘thing’ for me. Luke thinks my cholesterol is so high it’ll make me explode one day. He’s given many rants on how coffee will stunt Rory’s growth. One day he actually talked for 45 seconds straight, that’s how much he perturbed.” 

“He rants because he cares.”

Lorelai raised an eyebrow. “If that’s your evidence, Babette, maybe you should be going to Taylor. Besides, spying on Luke wouldn’t feel right. It’s like his ultimate betrayal. Burn down the diner? He might forgive you. Not respect his privacy? You’re dead to him.”

Babette sighed dramatically. “If you say so, Lorelai. I just thought you might like to know, is all.”

Lorelai paused. “Well, it’s not like I’m  _ not _ curious at all.” She swallowed nervously. She would never not crave being as close to Luke as possible - despite everything, he was still her soulmate - but it would be a bad idea. He’d find his own soulmate one day, Lorelai didn’t think she could handle that. 

_ Then again,  _ the selfish part of Lorelai thought.  _ If we knew what was coming, we would know when to leave.  _ As soon as Luke found the one, she would peace right out of Stars Hollow.

No, she couldn’t do that. “I am not seducing Luke,” she loudly declared. 

Babette looked taken aback. “No one said anything about seducing him, Lorelai. Just, you know - coaxing him out of those plaid things.” 

“Luke would hate me if he found out what I was doing,” Lorelai said. 

Babette mimed zipping her lips. “He won’t find out from me, hun. We wouldn’t do anything to cost us the victory from Tilly.”

Lorelai really shouldn’t agree to this. It was hard enough trying to keep emotional distance with him as it was, let alone if she started seeking him out. 

She should  _ not  _ get involved. 

  
“Ok, I’ll do it,” Lorelai heard herself say. “We have to stick it to East-Side Tilly, after all.”  


	3. The Last Friday Night of Freedom

Although she didn’t know it at the time, Lorelai spent her last Friday night of freedom enacting Plan A of the getting-Luke-to-take-off-his-shirt plot. She and Rory were at Luke’s for dinner, and had plans to catch a movie at the theater afterwards.

“Daughter mine, do we have any manual labor around the house that needs doing?”

Rory picked up another chili fry from the plate they were sharing as they awaited their burgers. “You’re asking me to do manual labor? With my delicate frame?”

“Of course not, we’re ladies.” She jerked her head in the direction of the counter. Unfortunately Luke was cooking tonight, and there was some teenager behind the register, but Rory got the idea. “It’s almost my half birthday, which is half a year away from the last time Luke thinks he did some solid work on the house, so it’s the perfect time to get some more.”

Rory frowned, swirling her water glass pensively. “I know it’s alright if he offers, like a gift, but is it taking advantage if we sit around plotting like this?”

“No,” Lorelai dismissed, although in the back of her mind she wondered how Rory could tell she _was_ plotting something. Damn genius offspring. “Besides, is it so wrong to have a safe and beautiful house for my one and only daughter, the light of my life?” she raised her hand and made a valiant attempt at pinching Rory’s cheek.

“Mom!” Rory exclaimed, embarrassed, ducking out of the way. “You’ll make me drop my fry!”

“Not the fry!” 

Rory pointed the fry at her. “You of all people are not allowed to mock my eating habits.”

“Sorry. Sometimes I get a little Sookie voice in the back of my head telling me that I should remind you that other foods exist.”

“Tell little Sookie I still eat Inn food when I work there after school,” Rory said. “I know about fancy things. I just get my taste of food from my beautiful mother.”

Lorelai smiled warmly at her daughter, touched by the sentiment. “Speaking of food,” she said, standing up from the table, “I’m going to go check on it. And bargain for the free yardwork.”

Rory frowned. “But Luke and food are in the kitchen! We’re not allowed in the kitchen!”

“I have my ways,” Lorelai called over her shoulder. Her ways included her dazzling wit and a lot of fluttering her eyelashes, but Rory didn’t need to know about that second one.  

She’d stepped around the counter and took about one step into the kitchen when Luke’s said, “You’re not allowed in here.”

Lorelai smiled her biggest smile at him. “Luke!”

“Out,” he ordered. He managed to look intimidating even while standing over a grill and pointing with a spatula.    

She went straight for her big guns and blinked slowly a few times, pouting slightly. “Luke, it’s an emergency.”  

He sighed, scooping up what appeared to be two chicken breasts and depositing them on two plates. One of the plates already had fries resting on it; on the other, Luke turned to the counter behind him and opened a glass jar.

“You don’t make your own applesauce?”

“Haven’t I already told you that you can’t be in here?”

“But it’s even apple season,” she protested.

Luke sighed. “I bought it local,” he admitted grudgingly, scooping apple sauce into a little bowl and placing that on the side of the other chicken. He then shoved both plates through the little window between the kitchen and the main diner.

“Finally,” Lorelai said, “Now we can talk - ow! Don’t push me!”

Luke ignored her, grabbing her by the shoulders and steering her out of the kitchen. He nodded at the waiter boy as the teen grabbed the two plates from their little slot (to his credit, waiter teen nodded back as though nothing was unusual), and finally deposited Lorelai on the other side of the wall. “There,” Luke said. “I’ve noticed you don’t respond well unless you have physical motivation.”

“Dirty,” Lorelai blurted out.

Luke flushed slightly - _oh, no, he was adorable when he blushed._  “That’s - I didn’t mean - that is not something I need to picture right now,” he mumbled, but he squeezed her shoulders one more time before letting go. “There. Stay,” he said. And then, as an afterthought, “Out of my kitchen.”

He turned around and re-entered his cooking space. Lorelai bent down to yell through the slot between the kitchen and the diner. “But Luuuke! I needed to ask you something! I had a purpose! You denied me my purpose! If I were to become a ghost at this moment, you’d just have forced me to haunt you forever.”

Luke gave a very loud, dramatic sigh. “What do you want?”

“I think lightning struck one of the trees next to the garage,” she called. “The tree is dead now, and I was hoping you could come help me take it down before a branch comes down and breaks my house.”

She didn’t have a great view of Luke from her vantage point, but she could hear the hiss of some potatoes being fried. “I’m busy this weekend,” he eventually called. “Think the branch will hold on till next week?”

“It’s lasted this long,” she answered.

“Is Tuesday good?”

She shook her head. “I have business class on Tuesday.”

“Ah...how about next Friday?”

“I like Friday!” she called. In the back of her mind, she started scheming lots of nefarious plots to convince Luke to take off the ever-present flannel. It could rip on the tree, and she could offer to fix it right away. Some “sap” could spill on it - do dead trees have sap?    

 

* * *

 

The next Monday morning, Rory’s acceptance letter for Chilton came.

On Monday afternoon, Lorelai opened the bill for Chilton.

She spent Tuesday and Wednesday buying school supplies for Rory, and racking her own (and Sookie’s) brain for place where she could come up with money for the tuition for Chilton.

Thursday evening, she went to her parents house to ask for money. She’d successfully avoided the house since Easter - she always forgot just how unpleasant her parents could be, until she came back.

On the Friday morning of Rory’s last day in Stars’ Hollow High, Rory left their breakfast at Luke’s early, partly to say goodbye to all her friends there, and partly to get away from her mother.  Lorelai angrily shoved the last bit of her french toast into her mouth and marched up to the counter.

“Rrry’s been ar brr,” she said to Luke’s back.

Luke turned around slowly. Lorelai had the distinct feeling that she had just been witness to an eye-roll. “Come again?” he asked.

Lorelai swallowed painfully. “Rory suddenly doesn’t want to go to Chilton!”

“That fancy prep school she was nattering on about all of August?”

“Yes!” Lorelai exclaimed. “To make things worse, I’ve already made the down-payment for Rory’s first semester, with money I had to borrow from _my parents.”_

Luke frowned. “What’s wrong with your folks?”

She gaped at him. “Excuse me? It’s not a matter of what’s wrong with my parents, it’s what _isn’t_ wrong with my parents. Come on, Danes. It’s like you don’t even know me at all.”

This time, she definitely got an eye roll.  “Right. Because each of the thousand words a minute spewing from your lips are each deep and meaningful.”

She frowned. “Well it’s not like you’re an open book yourself, mister. Anyways, if you’d have let me finish, you’d also know that my parents have conditions for loaning me the money for my dear daughter’s education, and that I have to go to Hartford to have dinner with them tonight. So really I was calling to cancel the tree execution I ordered before. I should have told you earlier - the branch fell down on Wednesday, and did not hit the shed and destroy all my earthly possessions. I was just so distracted with the Chilton thing.”

“Oh,” he said. “Okay, then.” He almost looked a little disappointed - no, she was imagining it.

“Okay then,” Lorelai repeated. Babette’s mission for her was the last thing on her mind - it had been put on hold, possibly indefinitely. She turned to go retrieve her purse from the table to pay for the meal, when Luke’s voice stopped her.

“How big is the branch?”

Lorelai turned around, approximating the width with her hands. “I dunno, about a foot wide, seven, eight feet tall? Longer than me, shorter than the counter.”

“Huh,” he said. “That would be good firewood.”

“Well, if you want to burn something down, be my guess.”

Luke shook his head. “I don’t have a fireplace in here. I was just saying, you do.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Luke, the last time that slot in the wall was used for its original purpose was, I don’t know, never. I wasn’t allowed to join the Girl Scouts as a kid. I don’t know anything about fires.”  

“I could teach you,” Luke offered.

She frowned at him. “You’re going to come to my house, chop of the wood cluttering my backyard, teach me a cozy yet dangerous skill? Just for fun?”

“Just for fun,” he answered.

She frowned at him. “No, seriously. What’s the catch? You can’t just be offering.”

Something in Luke’s face closed down as he recoiled from her. “Sorry,”  he said sarcastically. “I didn’t know I wasn’t allowed to offer things. My mistake - Me and my dad used to make fires, you know, in our fireplace. When I was a kid. But since it’s clearly too much of a _hassle_ for you, then that’s fine. I didn’t mean to inconvenience you with my presence.”  

“Oh,” Lorelai said.

She took another step forward, depositing herself back onto a stool across from Luke. “Luke, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to insult you. It’s just - no one’s ever given me so much for free. I had to earn everything the hard way. I raised Rory all on my own, without child support from her dad or borrowing from my parents - until now, by the way, and it didn’t come without a whole list of demands, and I - I just forgot. That people could be so kind.” She stared down at your hands. “Rory always tells me that you’re a big old softie. And Rory’s a very smart kid.”

That annoying voice in the back of her head was going _soulmate, soulmate, soulmate!_

Lorelai largely tried her best to ignore that voice. “I would love it if you could teach me to accidentally burn my house down,” she said.

Luke snorted. Lorelai noticed, looking down at her own hands folded on the counter as they were, that Luke’s hands weren’t so far away. They were wrapped around his side of the counter, fingers resting on the top as the palms digged into the side, and the right one kept twitching in Lorelai’s direction, as if it weren’t quite sure where it wanted to go. “You won’t burn your house down,” he said finally.

“You’d be surprised with my ability to burn seemingly unburnable things,” she said, looking back up. “But then again, sounds like you learned from the best.”

His eyes were very blue. Luke cleared his throat. “My dad was a good guy,” he said simply, and then - “would you mind if I asked you something?

“Shoot,” she said.

He hesitated. “You said Rory’s...dad, doesn’t pay child support?”

Lorelai rolled her eyes. “I don’t like to complain about this in front of Rory, but you can ask Christopher for nothing and he’d somehow manage to give negative. No matter what he feels about me, he should still care about his kid, shouldn’t he? I don’t know, it’s hard for me to be objective, but -” she cut herself off. Luke had the most bewildered look on his face. “What?”

“Nothing,” Luke replied, too quickly.

“What?” Lorelai repeated.

“It’s just that - I didn’t think Rory had a dad.”

She stared at him. “It generally takes two to make a kid.”

“I know that, I just -  nevermind.”

_“Tell me,”_ she insisted.

“Well, to be honest, I thought he was dead,” Luke admitted. He glanced up at Lorelai’s surprised expression, and cut her off before she could interject. “And it’s not just me. I - you know I don’t, but running the diner, you hear things, and word on the street was that you got together with your guy young, but then he died, so you moved here to get away from it all. Besides, isn’t not paying child support - illegal?”

Lorelai stared at him, incredulous.   “I never told anyone that Rory’s dad was dead,” she said. “In fact, other than Mia and Sookie and Rory, I don’t think I ever told anybody anything.”

He shrugged awkwardly. “Sorry I brought it up.”

“I mean, it’s not like we get on the greatest. Rory’s dad isn’t actually... _my guy,_ but I’ve always left the door open for him, if he ever wanted to communicate with his daughter. He see him once every couple years when he deigns to visit Connecticut, and we get phone calls on Rory’s birthday, but - he’s not dead. And I certainly wasn’t running away to get away from Christopher. He wasn’t my soulmate or anything, but he - it was really my parents that were so terrible. And now we’ve come full circle.”

At some point during her mini rant, Luke had retrieved a wet rag and was scrubbing down the counter with it. “I know this isn’t any of my business,” he said, “but he sounds like a jerk.”

Lorelai sighed. “It’s complicated.”

“What’s so complicated about it?” Luke questioned. “You have a kid, you go see the kid. Simple.”

The tinkle of the doorbell interrupted the end of his sentence as a new stream of customers walked in. “I better go,” he said.

Lorelai nodded, and put a ten dollar bill down on the counter. “That’s for being my counselor.”

“Therapists make at least ten times more than this,” he said, but his eyes were smiling in that Luke way of his.

“Goodbye,” Lorelai said, gathering up her coat and purse.

He nodded to her on her way out.

 

* * *

 

Lorelai called him around eleven, later than morning.

He answered the diner’s telephone with his usual “Luke’s.”

“Hi, um, it’s Lorelai.”

“Lorelai! Oh, ah, hi.”

She nodded to herself. “When I told you all that stuff earlier, and I said I had only ever talked about my past in depth with Rory and Mia and Sookie? Well, now the only people who know my whole story are Rory, Mia, Sookie, and you.”

There was silence over the phone line.

“I’m really sorry to have just dumped all that stuff on you this morning,” she said. “I was just-”

“No, don’t be sorry,” he interrupted. “I’m...honored, I guess.”

“Thanks, Luke,” Lorelai said back. “I really appreciate it.”

“You’re welcome. And listen, anytime you need an awkwardly personal story back, all you have to do is ask.”

Lorelai felt her mouth drop open a little, and for a second the thought glimmered in the back of her mind -

_No._ She couldn’t. She had to give up on it. It was a stupid idea in the first place, and she didn’t need to get even more of Luke tangled up in her heartstrings.

“You’re a good friend, Luke,” she said.

  
There was a pause. “You too, Lorelai,” he finally replied.   


	4. Birthday Party #1

Lorelai’s Monday morning - which had a definite negative tone before she arrived at work in her _nice_ outfit - received a definite uplift the moment she stepped into the Independence Inn kitchen. Sookie squealed when she saw Lorelai, and immediately dropped what she was doing and dragged Lorelai off to the far corner. The far corner of the kitchen was conveniently located next to the coffee pot, but Sookie’s news made Lorelai forget all about it.

“Lorelai!” Sookie exclaimed, grabbing her friend’s hands and jumping up and down. “He loves me! He’s the real deal! He loves me! The deep, epic, passionate soulmate-type loves me!”

Lorelai’s eyes widened. “Of course Jackson loves you! He’d be an idiot not to! Oh my god, Sookie, that’s so amazing!”

“I know!” Sookie squealed, jumping up and down. Lorelai jumped with her. “He loves me! He loves me! He loves me!”

The jumping stopped when Sookie stumbled a little, and Lorelai inevitably almost fell trying to steady her. It didn’t make the smile on either of their faces any less bright. “This is so wonderful, Sookie. When did he tell you?”

Sookie made a face. “Well, we haven’t exactly gotten to the saying-it-out-loud stage yet, but look!” She rolled up her left sleeve. There was a huge, discolored bruise splotched right down the middle of it.

Lorelai winced. “Um, Sookie? It looks painful and all, but did your bruise tell you that Jackson loves you?”

She chuckled. “No, of course not. I just woke up with it there this morning, and no idea how it got there, but then when Jackson was here earlier delivering the peaches he was complaining about how he accidently slammed his arm on the car door, and then I said that my arm really hurt too, and it was matching! Lorelai, we match! We did the soulmate hurt-sharing match thing!”

Lorelai smiled. She was smiling so hard, her cheeks might burst. “Wow. This is it, Sookie. This is the real deal. You and Jackson are going to live happily-ever-after.”

Sookie beamed back at her. “Will you be my maid of honor?”

There was a lot more squealing and giggling at the Independence Inn that morning.

 

* * *

 

Emboldened by her talk with Luke, Lorelai started pestering Christopher about his involvement with Rory.

“Hey Chris, it’s me. I just wanted to let you know that Rory started a new school! She’s going to Chilton Academy, she’s a prep girl now, despite all my warnings. So anyways, if you wanted to kidnap her, there’s the new address. Bye.”

“Hey Chris, it’s me. Rory’s feeling a little overwhelmed with the new school - harder classwork, meaner kids. I guess her childhood spoiled me before, she was always the top of her class and super well liked, so I don’t know how to deal with the whole bullying crisis. She’s a tough, smart kid, and I’m sure she’ll pull through, but in case you have any more useful advice, I’m sure she’d love hearing from dad. Bye.”

After a while, Lorelai started to get the feeling he was dodging her calls.

“Hey Chris, it’s me,” Lorelai said to his answering machine, pacing around her living room. “I was just calling to let you know that Rory will be turning 16 a week from Friday! There will be a big party, with lots of celebrating and merriment. Well, actually, my parents have kidnapped Friday for their party for Rory, so Saturday is the merriment. Friday will be me being very thankful I have Rory, and otherwise to suffer at the hands of my parents. Bye!”

A knock on her back door coincided with the end of her call. Lorelai put her phone back down on its receiver and hurried to the back door. Behind it stood Luke and Rory, both with an armful of logs. “My baby!” Lorelai crooned as Rory stepped inside. “You didn’t get hacked into pieces by the chainsaw-wielding man!”

“Luke didn’t let me touch the chainsaw,” Rory said. “In his defense, I did not want to touch the chainsaw.”

“So you still have all ten fingers, all ten toes?”

“We were very safe,” Luke huffed from behind Rory. “Did you set up that tarp?”

Lorelai peeled herself away from her daughter. “Yes! It’s in the living room.” She led the way through the house, so that Rory could put down her one log and big bundle of medium-sized sticks, and that Luke could put down the rest of the tree.  “Also, you may noticed that I have regular marshmallows, jumbo marshmallows, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, regular graham crackers, chocolate chips, reese’s pieces-”

Luke made a strangled noise.

“-and some bananas for Luke,” she finished. “Although I really don’t know how you would roast a banana.”

“My arteries will still work when I’m 50, and that’s good enough for me.” he grumbled, pulling the grate away from the fireplace and stacking logs inside. “Now, pay attention. There’s a bunch of different ways you can place the wood, but really in all of them you want the big logs on the outside, and the smaller sticks in the middle.”

Lorelai pulled away to make room for Rory to crouch down next to Luke, watching as Luke let her line the inside of the fire pit with twigs. Lorelai reminded herself was very glad that Luke was here today. She wanted Rory to have all the experiences she could, and god knows she wouldn’t learned any wilderness survival skills from her mother. Besides, with the way Rory was studying for Chilton, she could use a break. Plus, roasted marshmallows!

Luke had taken off his green jacket once he’d put down the logs, and he was now rolling up the sleeves of his flannel. Lorelai forced herself to look away. Having Rory here to act as a buffer away great. She couldn’t possibly make that big a fool of herself with Rory here.

“Lorelai, can we have newspaper and a lighter?”  

She snapped out of her daze. “Sure thing,” she answered lightly. “They’re in the kitchen, I’ll just a be sec.”

Lorelai stepped into the kitchen. The morning’s paper was sitting out on the table, but the lighter might be a little more elusive. She started systematically searching through all the drawers when she heard Rory ask, “Luke, can I ask you something?”

She found the lighter in the cupboard above the oven, but decided to hang out in the kitchen for a little longer, just in case. Not that she was eavesdropping on her own daughter, of course. Just for - well, ok, she was eavesdropping.

“Well, sure, I guess,” Luke answered.

“I don’t mean to pry, I was just wondering...are soulmates the for-sure thing everyone makes them out to be?” Rory started talking faster and faster. “It’s just that Mrs. Kim says they’re a gift from God and you can’t not accept God’s gift, but then my grandparents told me that soulmates don’t always work out, and that talking about the subject was improper. And talking about it always makes Mom sad, I think, I don’t know. She says I should form my own opinions. But I wanted more input, I guess.”

Luke paused. It was a big, rattling, earthshaking, dramatic pause. “I don’t know if I’m the person you should be asking about this, Rory.”

“It’s ok, I understand,” Rory said sadly, and Lorelai bet 100% that her daughter was doing her sad pouty face.

Luke, of course cracked under the pressure of the sad pouty face. “I know that your soulmate is generally the love of your life,” he said. “And your soulmate can make you very happy, but they can also make you very, very sad. It depends on the people, I guess. And the situation.”

“I think my grandparents are soulmates,” Rory said. “They just won’t tell me.”

“Ah,” Luke said. “I wouldn’t know about any fancy Hartford secret-keeping.”

“My soulmate mark’s on the bottom of my foot,” Rory said. “Mom said that’s because I’m going to go places.”

There was another, smaller pause. “My mom said my mark was on my arm because I’m a hard worker.”

“What does yours say?” Rory ask.

Lorelai grabbed the newspaper and lighter and sprinted to living room as fast as she had when Rory once fell off the top of the monkey bars in kindergarten. “I found the lighter!” she shouted, causing both Rory and Luke to jump. “It was hiding behind all the rest of the emergency supplies, but duct tape can’t conceal this little guy from me! Now, how long does it take to get a fire going, anyhow? I am very ready for lots and lots s’mores. A more s’mores than ever since the invention of the s’more. And isn’t it weird that it’s called s’mores? Give me s’more s’mores! How fun to say! We should take advantage of the weird word while we have it.”

The fire was beautifully cozy, and Lorelai chatted enough to steer the conversation to safe topics for the rest of the night.

 

* * *

 

Rory’s Friday night 16th birthday party was a bit of a train wreck since the beginning.

First of all, it was a party at her parents house. Cue the terrible guests who called Lorelai “the scandal girl,” and wondering why she _still_ wasn’t married.   

Second of all, Rory was freaked out because of the unexpected arrival of her Chilton cohorts. Unfortunately, some of that freak-out was directly Emily Gilmore, who consequently turned into the ice-woman and sent Rory fleeing upstairs.

“Paris is here, Mom! She makes my life hard enough at school, why does she have to ruin my birthday too?” her daughter ranted while sitting down on the bed of Lorelai’s old room.

“Isn’t there also a boy after you?”

Rory humphed and crossed her arms. “Tristan is the most annoying scum of the earth.”

“Some boys can be like that,” Lorelai agreed.

Rory sighed. “And I can’t believe I yelled at Grandma like that. I mean, she was wrong, to invite all those Chilton people without consulting me, but I’ve never yelled at her before.”

“She’ll forgive you,” Lorelai answered. “Trust me, I’ve done plenty worse.”

Rory seemed to ponder than for a little bit, looking around her mother’s old room.  “It’s hard to believe you grew up here.”

“Trust me, she did,” a voice said from the door.

And there, in all his glory, was the third thing that sent this party to the Disaster category of Lorelai’s mind.

“Dad!” Rory exclaimed, hopping off the bed and practically tackling her father.

  
“Hey, kiddo,” Christopher replied.


	5. Birthday Party #2: With 100% more face-cake

“Christopher,” Lorelai replied, stunned. She hadn’t seen him in...a year? Two? He usually popped by every couple a months to see Rory, but never at a place he knew Lorelai would be. 

Luckily, he didn’t seem to notice her shock. He clapped his hand on Rory’s shoulder and said, “Well, I couldn’t miss my favorite daughter’s very first 16th birthday party!”

Rory laughed. “I didn’t know you would be in town! You have to come to my real party, tomorrow!”

“What,” Christopher teased, “you don’t think this counts as a real party?” 

“Rory’s becoming very familiar with the Gilmore tradition of complaining against Richard and Emily,” Lorelai commented. 

“Mom,” Rory said, exasperated. 

For the first time in a very long while, Christopher and Lorelai locked eyes. “What can I say,” he replied. “Rory, you’re practically a carbon copy of your mother.”

* * *

 

After Christopher and Lorelai harangued Lorelai’s parents into giving a promise to maybe think about coming to Rory’s real party, they all left the house. 

“Dad, you should come stay with us!” Rory said. 

Christopher’s face twitched. “Wish I could, kid. Unfortunately my own parents are expecting me. They just moved back to New England, promised them some face time.”

Rory’s face fell. “Oh. Okay.”

“I’ll definitely be there all day tomorrow,” he said hurriedly. 

“Maybe your dad could take you out while I set up for the celebration,” Lorelai suggested. Chris flashed her a grateful smile. “After all, you always try to help, and we can’t have that. No work on your birthday!” 

“You’ve been trying to work on your birthday?” Christopher mock-gasped. “How could you? My own daughter!” 

Rory giggled. “That would be nice,” she said shyly, brushing her hair behind her ear. 

Chris clapped her on the shoulder. “Tomorrow will be your best day ever,” he declared. “I’ll spoil you rotten. They say you only have your sixteenth birthday twice, and I intend to do it right. See you tomorrow, bright and early? How does ten sound?”

“Ten is good,” Rory agreed, looking at her mom for confirmation. 

Lorelai nodded easily. She usually didn’t think about how much Rory looked looked like Christopher, but it struck her now; Rory had Christopher’s face shape, and they had the same hair. It was good, she told herself. Rory was lucky she didn’t have to deal with Lorelai’s wavy-frizzy-curly undecided hair mess that came on the days she didn’t have time for a straightener. “Ten is great,” she repeated. 

“We can go to the college fair!” Rory said.    
  


* * *

 

Rory’s Stars Hollow birthday party was everything Lorelai hoped it would be: fun, full of food, presents, laughter, and people who genuinely loved Rory. Babette and Miss Patty were telling stories to an embarrassed Rory and Christopher about Rory’s childhood. Sookie was running the kitchen, and the snacks were delicious, as always. Aside from some general whispers and pointing at Christopher, the party was drama-free; the town had gotten used to the man after Rory had dragged him around all day. 

Lorelai grabbed the cake from Sookie, who winked, and set it down on the coffee table, right in front of Rory. They sang, and Rory blew out her candles, they clapped. Rory was laughing.

“Alright everybody,” Lorelai announced. “Attention, please. This is a very serious moment.” She took a deep breath. “Two priests, a rabbi, and a duck-”

The crowd of Rory’s friends started laughing. “Mom,” Rory chided. 

“Alright, alright,” Lorelai said. “I would like to propose a toast to the one thing in my life is always good, always sweet, and without whom I’d have no reason to get up in the morning.” There were coos and awws. “To my pal Rory,” she declared, “Cheers. And in honor of this very special girl, I would like to invite all eat her face. The face on the cake, I mean.” 

The doorbell rang. 

“You may have the first bite,” Sookie said to Rory.

The doorbell rang again. 

“Come on, this is a party,” Lorelai crowed. “Get your ass in here!” 

And of course, her parents stepped in. Lorelai felt her jaw drop a little, but luckily Christopher popped up beside her. “Emily, Richard!” he said pleasantly.  

Rory followed them. “Grandma, Grandpa! I’m so glad you came!”

Allowing Rory and her father to take this one, Lorelai wandered to her kitchen to help Sookie distribute the cake in a daze. 

“My parents are here,” she told Sookie. “Christopher is here, and now my parents are here. Do you know when the last time my parents were at this house? Never. That’s when.” 

Sookie expertly distributed the cake slices onto plates. “Never? Really?” Lorelai nodded. “Wow, that’s big stuff.”

“I know,” Lorelai answered. “And it’s weird. I mean, Rory’s through the roof. It’s like - it’s like we’re a normal family.” She grabbed the first tray of plates and gave the to one of Rory’s old high school friends, with directions to distribute. “Am I crazy?” she wondered out loud as she re-entered the kitchen. “Was I crazy to run away from all that? I mean, my parents, duh, but Christopher would have married me, and Rory could have had all that-”

“You didn’t love him,” Sookie cut her off. Lorelai opened her mouth, but Sookie raised a finger to stop her. “I know it’s hard, but sweetie, it wouldn’t have worked out. The real thing is worth waiting for, trust me.” 

“I don’t have a real soulmate,” Lorelai confessed, and then froze. No. Oh, no, that was not something she told people. Her mouth was hanging open, as if the words could just come flying back in. Words, come back. 

“Of course you have a real soulmate,” Sookie admonished, not noticing Lorelai’s freak-out. “I’ve seen your mark. You’ve just got to be patient.”

Lorelai took a deep breath. “I don’t know, Sook.” 

Sookie, having chopped up half of the cake, put the knife down and grabbed Lorelai’s hand. Her face turned serious. “I don’t know how to tell you this,” she said seriously. 

Lorelai’s heart seized. “What?”

“We’re out of ice,” Sookie answered, face blank. 

She let out a huge breath. “Oh,” she answered. “God, your face, I thought you were going to tell me it was serious. Out of ice, no problem. I can just run to the store and get some. Make sure my parents don’t call child protective services till I get back?”

Sookie smiled. “I’ll do my best,” she answered. 

“Right,” Lorelai said, turning on her heel and walking to the entrance hall. She had just grabbed her coat when the door opened, revealing the reason she didn’t want to marry Christopher way back when. 

As an added bonus, Luke had ice. 

“Oh my god, you’re a vision! Sookie, we have ice!” Lorelai shouted. 

Sookie poked her head out of the kitchen doorway. “Hallelujah,” she said. 

“How did you know?!” Lorelai chirped, turning back to Luke. Luke was beaming in his quiet sort of way that made Lorelai fall in love with him all over again. 

“Just had a feeling,” he answered casually. “Good rule of thumb, you can never have too much ice.” 

“You’re the best,” she declared, smitten, and decided a hug couldn’t hurt this time. She sauntered forward, and was relieved when he hugged her back. She swore he even buried his face in her shoulder a little. 

There was a loud throat-clear behind them. 

They pulled away from each other. Lorelai couldn’t quite keep the smile off her face, even when she turned around and saw who it was. “Oh, hi, Chris. This is, um, my friend. Luke. He runs the diner in town.” From her peripheral vision, she sensed Luke raising his eyebrows at the name. “Luke, Christopher is Rory’s dad.” 

“We met earlier,” Chris said. “Rory dragged me in for lunch.” 

“Yeah, good to see you again,” Luke replied. “I better get these in the freezer,” he said, gesturing with the ice bags, and brushed past them to the kitchen. 

Christopher met her gaze. “Can I talk to you outside for a minute, Lor?” 

She sighed internally. One hug, and she already messed it up. “Sure,” she said, chipper as ever on the outside. She led the way outside, and made sure to shut the door firmly behind them. 

Christopher paced down the porch stairs and back and forth on the lawn a few times before he sighed loudly. “So, that guy?” 

“Luke?” she questioned, playing obvious. “What about him?”

He glared. “You can cut the crap with me, Lorelai. I can see right through you. He’s yours, isn’t he?” 

She bit her lip, her hand unconsciously coming up to rest over her heart. “Chris, let me explain.” 

“Rory didn’t say anything earlier,” he accused. “What, were you keeping it secret, trying to spare me?”

“He’s not mine,” she said loudly. Chris gave her a hard look. “I mean, he’s mine, but I’m not his. Like I’m not yours, I’m...I’m not Luke’s.” It was the first time she’d ever admitted that to anybody. Despite the circumstances, she felt a little relieved. 

Christopher stopped pacing. “Oh,” he said. 

She smirked. “Poetic justice, huh?” 

“It sucks, doesn’t it?” Chris answered her. “I’m guessing he doesn’t know.” 

Lorelai hung her head. “He didn’t react to my first words, and I figured - yeah, I never told him.”

He did a little half-smile. “I never wanted this for you.” Lorelai shot him a doubtful look. “Ok, maybe a few times, when I’m feeling old and bitter. But not really. I just wanted you to be happy, Lor.” 

She sighed. “Thanks for being honest.”

He took a step closer to her. “Hey,” he said, nudging her with his shoulder. “If it helps, I think he likes you. He was looking at you like you were about to give him a lap dance.” 

“Christopher!” She shoved him back with her own shoulder. “Don’t tease,” she said. “It’s hard enough.”

“I’m serious,” he said, running a hand through his hair. Lorelai noticed him gritting his teeth. 

“Christopher, don’t do this,” she said, putting her hand on his arm. 

“Gotta be happy for you, Lor,” he said. His smile was like a grimace. 

“You don’t have to pretend to be happy for me,” she said. “I never wanted this for you, either. I never meant to hurt you.”

He tugged his arm out of her grasp. “Well, you did,” he said sharply. “Are you sure you want to give me a free pass?”

“Christopher,” she said imploringly. 

His hands formed fists at his sides. “Cause if you’re giving me a free pass to be hurt, Lorelai, then yeah, it hurts. Looking at you, hurts. Watching you smile at somebody else-”

“Chris, I’m-”

“It  _ sucks,  _ Lor!” he snapped. “God, just looking at you, it just makes me want to rip my heart out. You’d think it would get better over the years.”

“Chris, I’m sorry,” she said. 

“You know what’s the worst?” he said. “Your messages.”

“What about my messages?”

“Did you know you never fully introduce yourself?” he said, pointing a finger at her. “Hi Chris, it’s me,” he said in a bad imitation. “Never, Oh hey it’s Lorelai Gilmore. You just say ‘it’s me’ every time because you still treat me like you own me, like you haven’t cast me off-”

Lorelai felt some indignation stirring in her. “Well that’s not fair. I say that because you’re the father of my child.” 

“There’s only so much I can take of these  _ constant  _ messages-”

“Well, I wouldn’t have to leave you constant messages if you the teeniest bit active in your daughter’s life!”

“She’s exactly like you, Lorelai!” he shouted. “If you think it doesn’t hurt to be around her, too-”

“Hey, you don’t get to be mad at Rory,” Lorelai growled. “She did nothing wrong. And if you don’t think I don’t see you in her, too, then you’d be an idiot, because I do. She is your kid, yours and mine, and she deserves better than this, for you to look right through her and see someone else!”

“You named her Lorelai Gilmore!” he yelled. “You never even gave me a chance!” 

“It’s not like you had any naming suggestions,” she fired back. “What happens if I die tomorrow, Chris, what then? Are you going to spend every day cringing at her?” 

They were interrupted by the door to the house opening. “Lorelai? Christopher?” Emily called out, a definite disapproving tone in her voice. “What on earth are you two doing out here in the cold, besides ignoring your guests and shouting?”

The two of them both turned to Emily. “Sorry, Mom,” Lorelai said tonelessly. “Christopher and I were just talking about when he was going to leave.” 

Christopher hit Lorelai roughly with his elbow as he passed her on the way in. “I love Rory,” he hissed through his teeth, narrowing his eyes at Lorelai. “I’ve got to get back to my kid.” 

She held her tongue as Christopher stomped past her mother and into the house. 

“Really, Lorelai,” Emily said. “You couldn’t have kept civil with Rory’s father for two whole days.”

Lorelai had an instinct to round on her mother and continue the screaming match, but then she deflated. She was too tired. “Sorry, Mom,” she said again. “You know me. Independent and disagreeable and can’t keep a man happy if her life depended on it.”

Emily’s mouth twitched. “I know you like to think you’re a big mystery to me, Lorelai, but most of the time you’re not.”

“Predictably disagreeable,” Lorelai said, nodding. “At least I have one strength.”

Emily eyed her warily. “However. There are some times where I don’t know you at all.”

“I have to get back to the party,” Lorelai said, and forced her way past, into the house. 

 

* * *

 

The moment she entered the kitchen a mug of coffee was shoved under her nose. 

“Here,” Luke said gruffly. 

“I tried to tell him this was a cold drinks kind of party, but he insisted you needed it,” said Sookie, who had moved on to arranging chicken strips and was back by the oven.

Lorelai took a big whiff. It smelled amazing, in the way coffee from Luke always smelled without fail. “I did need it,” she said softly, looking up at him. “How did you know?”

He looked uncomfortable. “Just had a feeling,” he said. “It’s what I do best. Plus, I’m always most comfortable in the kitchen.”

“Luke and I were bonding,” Sookie said. 

  
“You’re still not allowed behind the counter of the diner,” he said crossly, and Lorelai felt something inside her settle into place again. 


	6. Cross my Heart, Sugar

“Lorelai, are you home?” Babette called, knocking on the front door of their house.

Lorelai opened the door. “Hey, Babette. I’m just on clean-up duty from Rory’s party yesterday.”

“You want some help?” Babette asked. “I’m very handy with a dustpan, you know.”

“Sure,” Lorelai said, stepping back to let her neighbor in. “Rory has abandoned me for her father, but then again, can’t complain. She shouldn’t have to do work her birthday weekend. He also isn’t in town much.”

Babette nodded eagerly. “Gave us all a bit of a shock, yesterday, when Rory came around introducing us all to a strange man. To be honest, most of didn’t think he existed.”

Lorelai sighed loudly. “Yeah, Luke told me, the whole dead soulmate conspiracy. So before you ask, no, he’s not dead, and no, he and I were never a soulmate thing. I’m still looking.”

“You’ll find your man one day,” Babette said. “Speaking of Luke, did you make any progress on that job I gave you?”

Lorelai started picking up all the blankets scattered around the living room and started folding them distractedly. “About that. Babette, I don’t think I can do it.”

“Luke’s being a clam, even to you?” she asked.

“Well, it’s not really that,” Lorelai replied. “I don’t want to know what it says.”

Babette raised her eyebrows. “You’re not curious anymore?”

She shifted from foot to foot. “Well, I’m curious, but I don’t think it’s worth it.”

“Come on, sugar. You’ll change your mind once we’re rubbing Tilly’s face in it.”

“It’s just - well, it’s private,” Lorelai rationalized,  “And it’s his, and once I find out what it says he won’t be our mystery Luke anymore, he’ll be Luke with a future with some person attached. No more inexplicably beloved yet terminally grumpy Luke! Somebody else’s Luke. Mystery stranger’s-” She glanced down at Babette, whose mouth had dropped open. “What?” she snapped.

“Honey, I’m so sorry,” Babette said. “I had no idea.”

“What?” Lorelai repeated.

“You like Luke!” Babette said, clasping her hands together. “You like Luke, and he likes you, but you don’t want to be together ‘cause it’ll hurt too much when your real soulmates come along. Oh, it’s so tragic. You poor things.” She rubbed her hands together. “I can’t believe I didn’t see it. You have a thing for Luke, and I’ve been badgering you about his other woman.”

Lorelai froze. “I don’t like Luke,” she said.

Babette winked at her. “Sure thing, doll.”

“I _don’t,”_ Lorelai insisted. “I can’t.”

Babette patted the space on the couch next to her. 

Defeated, Lorelai sat down. “Have I been that obvious lately?” she said. “First Rory’s dad, and now you - you can’t tell him!”

Babette made an X over her chest. “Cross my heart, sugar, I swear,” she said. “It’s not that obvious. I mean, it’s a lot less obvious than Luke’s thing for you, if that makes you feel better.”

Lorelai laughed. “It does a little. Thanks, Babette. I’m sorry I couldn’t help.” She shifted in her seat. “You think Luke really likes me?”

“Luke’s been into you for years,” Babette said solemnly.

Lorelai looked down at her lap. “But he doesn’t want to ask out someone who’s not his soulmate. That makes sense.”

Babette reached over and grabbed her hand. “You kids have it rough,” she said, squeezing. “If it makes you feel better, I can’t imagine somebody made for each other more than you and Luke.”

Lorelai squeezed back. “I’ll be fine. I’m sure loads of people have had it worse.”

“You need anything, you just call me,” Babette said.

She nodded, staying silent. It wouldn’t do to tell Babette that she couldn’t imagine someone more perfect for her than Luke, either.

 

* * *

 

“You know, you guys really should have some healthier stuff, especially after all that junk food you had this weekend,” Luke said, placing two doughnuts on their breakfast table with the hand not holding the coffee pot.

“Unfortunately the bus to Chilton does not have time for bacon,” Rory said, taking a huge bite of her doughnut.

Luke rolled his eyes. “I was thinking more along the lines of some fruit.”

“Orange juice goes bad with doughnuts,” Lorelai said, turning her head towards him, but then flinched a little. “Ow,” she said, rubbing the underside of her jaw. “I got this really nasty paper cut.”

“On your neck?” Rory questioned.

“Yeah,” Lorelai answered. “It must have been when I fell asleep all over your Shakespeare notes. They attacked me and cut up my face.”

Rory frowned. “My Shakespeare test was a little while ago. That’s a long time for a cut.”

Lorelai shrugged. “Well, maybe it was at the Inn sometime? I do go through a lot of papers. I don’t really remember when I got it.”

“Whenever it was, you have my condolences,” Luke said, rubbing his own jaw. “That’s a nasty spot. I cut myself shaving just yesterda-” he cut himself off abruptly, staring at Lorelai’s throat.

Lorelai and Rory shared a glance, and then stared back up at the frozen diner owner. “Um, Luke? Earth to spaceman?” Lorelai questioned.

“Let me see your neck,” he said, his voice definitely more high-pitched than usual. The knuckles on his hand holding the coffee pot were turning white; with the other hand, he shot out and grabbed Lorelai’s chin.

“No,” Lorelai said rebelliously, even though Luke was already tilting her head up at an awkward angle. Out of the corner of her eye, Lorelai could see Rory smirking. She made a face at her daughter as best she could while Luke was tilting her head back at an uncomfortable angle.

“Stop squirming,” Luke told her. “Lorelai. Holy shit. This is the exact same-”

“Whoa, language,” she interrupted. “There are children present.”

“My delicate young ears,” Rory sighed. “Ruined forever.”

On her chin, Luke’s hand began to tremble ever-so-slightly. “Oh my god, Lorelai,” Luke murmured. “This is… oh my god, Lorelai. Lorelai. Oh my god!”

“Doctor Danes, is it that bad?” she asked jokingly..

“Shut the hell up,” he spat. “Lorelai, this is serious. I think-”

Angry, Lorelai jerked her head out of his grip. “Hey,” she hissed. “You can’t talk to me like that.”

There was a muscle twitching in his jaw. “You - your - Lorelai!” he spluttered, “are you kidding me? You-” he cut himself off, eyes going wide. “Oh my god, Lorelai, you knew! And you -” he made some gesturing motions between the two of them, looked at Rory, back at Lorelai.

“Luke, are you feeling okay?” Rory asked. “You look really pale.”

“I think I need to lie down,” he said faintly, dropping the coffee pot on their table and practically sprinting through behind the counter, and up the stairs.

Lorelai and Rory exchanged a look. “That was weird,” Rory said lightly, breaking the silence.

“I know. What was that about?” Lorelai said.

“I don’t know,” Rory answered. “Do you think blood freaks him out, or something?”

“Luke?” Lorelai pondered. “Maybe. I mean, I guess. Do you think I should go check on him?”

“I think you better,” Rory said. “Is it okay if I keep eating? I don’t want to be late for the bus.”

“Sure thing,” Lorelai answered lightly. She pushed up out of her chair and slowly followed Luke’s path behind the curtain. 

She’d never been in Luke’s apartment before, and she would have loved more time to look around, but Luke was sitting on the couch with his head in his hands, taking heaving breaths, hunched over and small. He looked up when Lorelai came in, eyes wide, and then looked quickly away. She felt a little unsettled. Luke was never small.

There was a long silence. “Luke, are ok?” she finally asked, timidly.

“Is this what Miss Patty was talking about?” he blurted out, still looking down.

“I don’t know,” she said. “What was Miss Patty talking about? When?”

“She came in here last night near closing,” he told his coffee table, his voice still sounding - wrecked, almost _._ “Said she wanted to apologize. I asked what for, and she said for asking you, Lorelai, to spy on me, and that you wouldn’t do it. So I asked why on the planet anyone would need to spy on me for, I’m an open book, and then she told me people were curious about, you know, my mark. Of course, I told her it was none of anyone’s damn business, and she said that that’s what you said too.”

Lorelai could hear her own blood pounding in her ears. “Well, it’s not,” she said.

He looked up at her at last, eyes piercing.  “Oh my god, Lorelai,” he said. “Why didn’t you ever tell me?”

A wave of terror washed through her. First Christopher on Saturday, and then Babette yesterday, and then Luke found out today about her big giant crush, and it freaked Luke out. That must be it. She didn’t know how. Was she sending out radio waves, or something?

“Tell about what?” she asked dumbly, plastering a toothy smile on her face, and praying Luke would still be her friend after this. Babette must have been wrong, just the idea that Lorelai had a thing and Luke was panicking. Of course he didn’t like her, the idea had him running away screaming.

Luke was tugging at the ends of his hair, hard. He yanked the gray baseball cap off his head and placed it against his face, taking deep breaths.

“Luke?” Lorelai asked again. “You’re scaring me.” 

He tossed the baseball cap down on the coffee table, and ran his fingers through his hair. “You - hate being controlled by things,” he said haltingly. “You hate circumstances out of your control. You hate feeling like you’re being manipulated into things.”

“Yeah,” Lorelai said cautiously. “I’m not really sure where you’re going with this.”

“Damn it, Lorelai!” he shouted suddenly, jumping to his feet. “I had a right to know!” He stalked towards her. “This isn’t just about you-”

She stepped backwards, reaching down inside her for some righteous anger. “A right to know?” she spat. “You do not have a right to my private feelings, mister.”

“Private?!” he shouted, prowling towards her. “This is life-changing information!”

“No it’s not!” she shouted, and to her horror there were tears springing to her eyes. She continued to back up into Luke’s kitchen area. “This doesn’t have to change anything! We can stay the same!”

“We absolutely cannot,” he spat.

“I’m sorry, Luke,” she cried. “I’m so sorry. I can act normal! I can! We don’t have to do or be anything more than friends, I promise! I don’t know how it got out, I’m sorry it got out of control-” her back bumped into a cabinet.

“Out of control,” Luke growled, stepped right up next to her. He placed his forearms on either side of her head, trapping her against the counter.

His eyes were so blue, and he was staring directly at her, his mouth still twisted into a snarl.

“I’m sorry, Luke,” she said, her voice trembling. 

“I’m not,” he said, voice suddenly softer. His hands slid down from the cupboard to her shoulders, and for a moment she thought he might kiss her.

Her vision was starting to get blurry. She blinked. A tear slipped out, slid down her cheek.

Luke pushed away from her suddenly, turning around and crossing back towards the couch. Lorelai stayed frozen where she was.

He stopped one step away from the couch, his back still to her. “Lorelai, why do you even stick around?” he said, sounding strangled.

Lorelai felt a sob escape her. She fled down the stairs.

Rory was no longer at their table - she must have left for Chilton. Lorelai threw the only cash she had (a fifty) down on the table, and walked out of Luke’s with her head held back.

This time, she swore, she was really never coming back.

 

* * *

 

In an attempt to try to salvage any part of her emotional health, Lorelai spent the next few days throwing herself into her friendship with Rory. Rory, who was apparently seeing a boy, and did not want to talk about it.

Really, _really,_ did not want to talk about it.

Lorelai, for the first time in her life, was desperately trying and miserably failing to achieve Cool Mom status.

“And you know me and Rory,” Lorelai said to Sookie, clutching her mug of Independence Inn coffee tightly in her hands. “We don’t fight. We never fight. We tell each other everything.”

“This is her first boy,” Sookie said reasonably. “Nobody’s completely honest with the parents about their boyfriends.”

Lorelai pouted. “Rory and I are best friends. And now suddenly she’s kissing boys without telling me, getting secret birthday presents, and when I tried to ask Dean out on a little hang-out with us, she flipped out.”

Sookie winced. “Come on, Lorelai, cut her some slack. Would you really want to go on a date with your Mom there?”

Lorelai shuddered. “It’s not the same. Anyways, I swear it wasn’t just that. She flipped, going on and on about disloyalty and betrayal and societal norms, and when I told her it was okay to date people before you meet your soulmate she got even more angry and said that I, in particular, was not a reliable source on the subject.” She started pacing. “Me, in particular? Low blow. So now I’m mad at Rory, and Rory’s mad at me, and I’m not really sure what started the fight, but I can’t force Rory to talk to me again!”

Sookie was making a face.

“What?” Lorelai asked flatly.

“You won’t want to hear this,” Sookie answered.

Lorelai took a big swig of her coffee, and gestured for the chef to continue. “Come on, Sook, lay it on me.”

“Alright,” Sookie said. “Don’t get mad at me, but Rory may have...a point.”

“A point?!” Lorelai shouted, dramatically placing a hand over her heart.

“It’s not like you’ve dated a lot of guys, Lorelai.” Sookie paused, and tilted her head. “I don’t think you’ve dated anybody since Rory was really small. And - please, please don’t take this the wrong way - the only man you’ve ever had a big relationship with was Rory’s father, and you were his soulmate. So it’s possible, _possible,_ that Rory doesn’t think you’re that good at dating. And then, of course, there’s the whole Luke thing.”

Lorelai froze. “What. Luke. Thing.” she ground out. She hadn’t told anybody about her and Luke’s Giant Blowout yet, but most people were smart enough to avoid the subject. 

Sookie wrung her hands. “Don’t be mad, Lorelai.  It’s just that Rory has eyes, and she sees that you and Luke are best friends-”

“You’re my best friend,” Lorelai corrected, and Sookie smiled slowly.

“You’re my best friend too, Lorelai,” she said. “But just look at this from Rory’s point of view. You have this great chemistry with Luke-”

Lorelai snorted. “Not anymore.”

“You do,” Sookie insisted, interrupting her. “And Rory sits there thinking, wow, if mom won’t even date her sweet best friend Luke, she won’t date anybody. And if mom doesn’t date anybody, why should I? Of course, on the other hand, she really likes this boy, so she’s got this inner turmoil, and I think she took it out on you.” 

Lorelai frowned. “So the solution is...I date somebody?”

Sookie froze. “Um,” she said.

Lorelai crossed her arms, her now-empty coffee mug dangling from her fingertips. “Fine,” she said. “I’ll date people. I’ll date the whole damn town if that’s what it takes.”

Sookie gave her a look.

“Not Luke!” Lorelai said sternly. “Sookie, Luke and I are finished forever. Clean break. Nothing happened and nothing ever will happen. Ever.”

"But-"

"Never," she said, and swallowed hard.  


	7. In the Spirit of Snowfall

  
The first snowfall of the year came unseasonably early, on November 3rd. It was so heavy that the public busses had stopped running, stranding Rory in Hartford with Lorelai’s parents. Not that Rory necessarily minded - she’d become increasingly frustrated with the fact that Lorelai had refused to go to Luke’s the last two weeks, all the while refusing to talk about the Dean thing.  
  
Lorelai couldn’t believe Rory hadn’t told her about her first kiss.  
  
Lorelai tried not to let her ongoing fight with Rory ruin this snowfall for her. In fact, she refused to think about anything negative, which was why she was also steadfastly avoiding Luke’s. Her plan was working well so far. She had given him a casual wave through the glass windows of the diner as she quickly walked down the sidewalk, which he had stiffly returned. See? They weren’t avoiding each other. She could successfully go on the sidewalk. It wasn’t awkward, it was fine. Everything was just -  
  
“Lorelai!” a voice called out from across the square. She turned to see Mr. Medina, Rory’s English teacher, standing outside Gypsy’s car repair shop.  
  
She smiled and waved back eagerly. Yeah, everything was going to be fine.    
  
The last time she had spoken to Max had been at the beginning of the school year - quite a few weeks ago. He’d flirted with her, hinted around the subject of asking her out. Lorelai took it as a compliment, but didn’t respond, allowing Max to fade back into the background from whence he came.  
  
Well, no more background for you, mister.  
  
“Max!” Lorelai yelled back, hopping off the sidewalk near Luke’s and cutting across the square. “What happened?”  
  
“My car broke down!” he shouted back.  
  
Lorelai skidded to a halt in front of him, panting slightly from her quick run. “Your car broke down? Here? In Stars Hollow?”     
  
He shrugged, but he was smiling. It was a good look for him. “I was just talking to the mechanic. She said it’d be a few hours. I’m stranded.”  
  
“Oh no,” Lorelai said, smiling slowly back at him. “Rory’s stranded in Hartford with her grandparents. Shame, that snow.”  
  
“A shame indeed,” he said.  
  
“Since we’re both here and in need of company, do you want me to show you around?” She offered her elbow to him.  
  
“I would love that,” Max said, linked his arms through hers.  
  
It had been a long time since Lorelai had been out on a date - a long, long, long time. At least half a decade since she’d last kissed a man. Max was a good date, though. His hair was thick and wavy and his body was solid and strong next to hers, and he chuckled at all the right times and he wasn’t too bad with the jokes, either.  
  
Lorelai was enjoying herself. She was enjoying herself, on a date, with Max. Luke wasn’t the end-all-be-all after all.  
  
Who knew.  
  
“The Inn where I work is up that way,” Lorelai gestured, in the direction up past the bridge, and then looked down at the pond. “Wow, this sure is frozen. It’s almost never completely frozen over.”  
  
“It’s a winter to best all winters,” Max agreed, his voice warm. Lorelai turned her gaze away from the pond to look at him.  
  
“A snow to best all snow.”  
  
“I certainly have the best company,” Max said, leaning in.  
  
Lorelai froze. She wasn’t an idiot. She knew what was happening. He was sending out kissing signals. Max, the perfectly nice, attractive English teacher, wanted to kiss her. She could lean towards him, tilt her head, and bam, it would be happening. This would be the date she surely needed - for her own sake, for Rory’s sake. There was nothing wrong with dating. It would be a good thing.  
  
And yet, Max the perfectly-nice-attractive-English-teacher was leaning towards her, and she was panicking.  
  
“Have you seen the reenactors!” she blurted out.  
  
Max stopped leaning. “What?”  
  
“The Revolutionary War Reenactors,” she chattered. “Town staple. Cause of much controversy. Are they cute? Are they crazy?  Patriotic or pointless? They’re out tonight. We should go check how they’re doing!”  
  
Max raised his eyebrows, but allowed Lorelai to grab his hand and lead the way off of the romantic kissing bridge spot. “They’re out tonight?” he said. “In this weather? They must be crazy.”  
  
Lorelai pouted. “I love this kind of weather.”  
  
“Yes, but you were sent out by fate, to save me from a boring night of worrying over my car.”    
  
“I don’t know about fate,” she said. “I always go out for snow.”  
  
Max looked at her, seriously. “Where are we going, Lorelai?” he asked, squeezing her hand.  
  
“The reenactors are in the center of town,” she answered. “It’s by where we left your car.”  
  
“Oh,” Max said. He pulled his hand away.  
  
They rounded corner of the street, and suddenly the town square and the gazebo were visible again. Guarding the square stoically were the reenactors.  
  
“Wow, they are really getting buried there,” Max remarked. “Well, at least they’re getting fed.”  
  
Lorelai stopped dead. He was right - there was a distinctly baseball-capped figure handing out warm drinkers to the soldiers. Luke, you old softie. “Oh, crap.”  
  
“What?” Max asked, edging closer to the middle of the square. “Do you think we can get in on some hot coffee?”  
  
“No!!” Lorelai yelped. A little too loudly - Luke looked up, noticing her. She jumped to grab Max’s arm again, tugging him in the opposite direction. “Max, I’m so sorry. It’s just, that’s Luke, and he’s my - we kind of - ”  
  
Max made a face. “He’s your ex?”      
  
“Yes!” she said, looping her arm through his again, relieved to have found a sane reason for her behavior. “I’m avoiding me ex,” she proclaimed proudly.  
  
Max squirmed. “Lorelai, I don’t want to get in the middle of anything.”  
  
She looked sideways to him. “I’ll walk you to your car,” she said.  
  
“I had a nice time tonight,” he offered quickly, as a condolence. “Very scenic. A lot more nature than I’ve had in a long time.”  
  
She smiled. “I had a nice time too. I’m sorry-”  
  
“Don’t be sorry,” Max interrupted. “My car was broken anyways. I would have been here no matter what.”  
  
“I hope it feels better,” Lorelai said. They stopped outside of Gypsy’s garage door.  
  
Max let out a long sigh. “Well, I better go see the prognosis. Goodbye, Lorelai.”  
  
“Bye, Max,” she said, reaching forward to give him a quick hug.  
  
Her arms had barely settled around Max’s back when a flare went off on the top of her chest. “Ah!” she exclaimed, leaping back, her right hand rising to the top of her sternum where the burning feeling had settled. “Ow,” she said, wincing.  
  
“Lorelai? Are you okay?”  
  
She rubbed the spot where her breastbone met her collar. “Yeah, I’m fine,” she said. “Yeah, just heartburn, flared up kind of suddenly.”  
  
Max took her elbow. “It looks bad,” he said. “Does this happen often?”  
  
“No,” she said. “I used to get it a lot when I was pregnant with Rory, but - must have just been something I ate.”  
  
“I should walk you home,” he said.  
  
She waved him off. “It’s not that bad, Max. I’ll be fine.”  
  
“I have the strong feeling I have a few more hours to kill anyways,” he argued. “Please, Lorelai? For my boredom?”  
  
She smiled. “As long as you promise to not get lost on the way back.”  
  
“Scout’s honor,” he said, guiding her by the elbow. “This way?”  
  
“It’s a right at the end of the block, past the high school,” she said. “Thank you, Max.”  
  
“Well, I actually was a boy scout for about 6 months, so I’m just holding up the scout code,” he joked. While he was talking, Lorelai looked over her shoulder, back at Luke. He hadn’t moved from his position by the reenactors, but he was watching her.  
  
Say something, Lorelai thought. She was trying to move on, like he wanted.  
  
Luke remained silent and still as Max walked her home.  


 

* * *

  
  
When Lorelai got home from work that Friday, Rory was already home. This was a nice surprise, because Rory usually stayed after school pretty late to work on the Franklin, only coming home just before dinner. She was also lying on the couch reading instead of squirreled away in her room reading, which was nice.  
  
“Hey, kid,” Lorelai said. “Fancy seeing your face in these parts. I missed you.”  
  
Rory looked up, closed her book and sat up all the way. “I kind of understand where you’re coming from, now,” she said, with an air of sageliness. “I couldn’t do it either.”  
  
Lorelai hung her coat up on the coatrack and dropped her purse on desk with the phone messages. “Couldn’t do what?”  
  
Rory frowned. “Mom, you don’t have to play dumb anymore. I talked to Luke this morning. I know now.”  
  
Lorelai froze. “You talked to Luke?”  
  
“Don’t be mad,” Rory said. “He was so afraid you’d be mad. He didn’t even directly tell me, I was just asking for advice, and he said he’d had a similar experience, and I just figured it out. He was really helpful, really, Mom.”  
  
“Great,” Lorelai said, her voice hard. “You’re going to Luke for all your love advice now.”  
  
“Don’t be mad,” Rory repeated. “Mom, it justs seems so hard, and complicated, and everyone else in Stars Hollow tells me it should be easy, and Grandma and Grandpa think it shouldn’t matter at all, but you and Luke are - you’re complicated, and I’m complicated, and I just really need to know.”  
  
Lorelai closed her eyes, and took a deep breath, in and out. Her kid needed her. She could let go of all the bitterness towards the Luke subject (she would let go of anything) for her kid. “Look Rory,” she said, mentally drawing parallels between what Luke possibly could have told her and what’s been happening to Rory. Luke was disgusted by her feelings, Dean had asked Rory out - Sookie said she should date more. Lorelai could work with that. “Dating is really not that big a deal,” she said. “It gets exaggerated, and blown out of proportion. Not everything is the grand love story of the century. Somethings just...are. And I’m sorry I’ve been on your case about Dean. Date him or not, it’s up to you.”  
  
Rory pursed her lips. “This really isn’t about Dean,” she muttered.  
  
“In the spirit of total honesty,” Lorelai continued. “I have something to tell you. I went on a bit of a date with Max Medina. His car broke down here in Stars Hollow, and we walked around some. It was nice, but there probably won’t be a second date. It wasn’t a big deal.”  
  
She said this calmly, with the hope that it would make Rory calm, but Rory immediately made a disgusted face. “You went on a date with Mr. Medina?” she asked, wrinkling her nose.  
  
“Don’t be like that,” Lorelai said. “It was just a date!”  
  
“When was this?”  
   
“On Wednesday,” she admitted. “The night you were stuck with your grandparents.”  
  
This only made Rory recoil more. “On Wednesday!” she squeaked. “Mom! How could you?”  
  
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner,” Lorelai said. “It was a spontaneous thing.”  
  
“And you took him around Stars Hollow?” Rory asked incredulously. “Did Luke see you?”  
  
Lorelai stuck her hand on her hip. “This isn’t about Luke,” she said, annoyed. “He might have, but it doesn’t matter. I don’t know what he said to you, but-”  
  
“How could you do that to him?” Rory interrupted, her voice getting higher. “I thought you loved him!”  
  
“What the hell has Luke been telling you?!” Lorelai screeched.  
  
“He didn’t tell me anything!” Rory shouted back, her face slowly turned red. “It’s so obvious. We go there every day!”  
  
“Lots of people go there every day!”  
  
“We don’t pay for half our meals!” Rory screamed. “Why don’t you want to be with him?”  
  
Lorelai deflated. “First of all, kid,” she said. “Luke doesn’t want to be with me.”  
  
“Of course he does,” Rory told her.  
  
“No, he doesn’t.”  
  
“Mom, I just talked to him,” Rory said, a gleam of hope in her eyes. “Trust me, he does.”  
  
Lorelai looked at Rory, a little bubble of happiness swelling within her ( _Luke’s got a thing for you_ , Babette said. _You’re his favorite_ , Miss Patty said). She quickly squashed it back down.  
  
“Secondly,” she said, and pictured Christopher’s face when she told him about Luke. “I can’t.”  
  
Rory flinched. “Why not?”  
  
“I just can’t, Rory,” she said.  
  
“Tell me why!”  
  
“It’s personal,” Lorelai said. “It’s personal and I don’t want to talk about it!”  
  
“I thought we were supposed to be friends!” Rory shouted, her voice getting thick.  
  
“Tough!” Lorelai yelled back. “I’m the mom, and you’re the daughter, and this is just how it is sometimes!”  
  
Rory started packing her books into her backpack.  
  
“Where do you think you’re going?” Lorelai said.  
  
“Lane’s,” answered Rory.  
  
“Oh no you’re not,” Lorelai answered. “You’re going to your room.”  
  
Rory scowled, brushing past her mother to the front door. “Tough!” she bellowed, slamming the door behind her.  
  
Lorelai stared after her, wanting to scream.


	8. A Few of the Hymns are in Korean

It was the second week of December, and Lorelai was having a fight with her mother.  
  
Not that having a fight with her mother was an uncommon state for her. It stung, being uninvited to the Christmas party, but Lorelai and her mother had had much worse fights before, and probably would again. Apple tarts were a casualty of war she could live with.  
  
The real reason it hurt was that Rory was going to the Christmas party, and Rory was still  keeping up her frigid act. And between the fighting with her mother, fighting with Rory, and fighting with Luke...well, Lorelai didn’t have that much fight in her, any more.  
  
She couldn’t do anything about her mother or Rory, in Hartford.  
  
Luke was in Stars Hollow - she might be able to fix things with Luke. At the very least, closure, maybe. At least she wouldn’t be sitting around at home, being avoided by all the people she loves most-  
  
Lorelai shut down that train of thought before it could go too far. Things would be fine, she thought, reaching for her winter coat. It was a crisp, dry winter night out tonight. The walk might cheer her up.  
  
Lorelai was almost at the diner when Rory called. “Hello?”  
  
“Mom?” Rory said, her voice high-pitched and panicked.  
  
“Rory? What’s wrong?”  
  
“Grandpa collapsed,” she said shakily. “We’re heading to the hospital right now.”  
  
“The hospital!” Lorelai repeated. “What happened, what’s wrong?”  
  
“I don’t know,” Rory told her. “He just collapsed. Just come?”  
  
“I’ll be right there,” Lorelai said, swallowing down her panic. She turned to run back to the house to grab the jeep-  
  
Wait, no, Rory had the jeep to drive to Hartford. Damn it!  
  
As she was just outside the diner anyways, Lorelai burst inside, clutching her cell phone so tightly the plastic edges dug into her palm. “I need the number of a cab company!” she said. Crap, her voice was edging towards hysterical. She swallowed and tried again. “And I need a phone - wait, no, I have a phone, I just need the number of a cab company. It’s something like 1-800-Cabs, or 1-800-Taxi, or-”  
   
“Lorelai,” Luke interrupted her, grabbing her by the shoulders to still her. She hadn’t noticed that he’d come around the counter to greet her (or, more likely, to throw the crazy woman out of his restaurant). She gazed up at him. He needed a haircut and a shave very badly, but was otherwise just the same. “Lorelai,” Luke repeated, squeezing her shoulders, “What happened?”  
  
“My dad’s in the hospital,” she told him. Something in the pit of her stomach dropped. “Rory has the jeep in Hartford, but I need to get there, Luke, I need to be there, so I need cab, the number for a cab, so I can call a cab.”  
  
Luke stared at her, calculating.  
  
“Look, I know you hate me right now, but please, if I could just use your phonebook- ”  
  
“You don’t need the phone book,” Luke interrupted. “I’m driving you.”  
  
“What?” Lorelai asked, but he had sprung away, already in action.  
  
“Everyone out!” he shouted at the crowd of people in the diner. “Food’s on me. We’re closing early for the night. Just get out!” He spun around, and pushed his keys into a nonplussed Taylor’s chest. She hadn't even noticed he was there. “Get yourself some hot chocolate, and then lock up when you’re done.”  
  
“Luke,” she said softly.  
  
He reached around the counter for his coat, and then ushered her out the door. “Don’t worry about it,” he said.  
  
“Luke,” she repeated, voice wobbling. “I’m...”  
  
“I know,” he said gruffly.    


* * *

  
Luke and Lorelai managed to track down her mother’s screeching, her father’s room, all the various newspapers and doctors and forms that needed to be collected and signed. Luke had hovered annoyingly over her shoulder until she sent him away with a huge request for coffee.  
  
Unsurprisingly for a hospital with all its coffee machines broken, Luke was gone a decently long time. Lorelai was able to fill out most of the forms regarding her parents insurance, medical history, and current information. When he got back, he seemed to pop up out of nowhere.  
  
“Here,” Luke said suddenly, handing her a styrofoam cup.  
  
Lorelai took the cup and sniffed at its contents cautiously. “Coffee!” she exclaimed, delighted. “You found some? You magician!”  
  
“It’s from the nurse’s station,” Luke said.  
  
Lorelai raised her eyebrows.  
  
“What?” Luke asked, smiling humorlessly. “You’re not the only one who can flirt. Also, I got you a band-aid.”  
  
“A band-aid?” she echoed.  
  
“For your finger.”  
  
“My-” she looked down, remembering her left index finger. “Oh, yeah. How’d you know about that? It’s really fine, now, it was nothing. Just accidently got caught on a sharp edge, I guess.”  
  
Luke sighed loudly. “Whatever you say, Lorelai. Just let me, okay?”  
  
Lorelai’s eyebrows furrowed. “Okay,” she said softly, allowing Luke to take her free hand and gently wrap a band-aid around the tip of her finger. Her eyes flitted from her hand to his face and back again - he wasn’t making eye contact, carefully keeping all his attention on her bandage. “Hey,” she said suddenly, eyes alighting on his left hand. “You have a band-aid, too.”  
  
Luke rolled his eyes, but before he could say anything they were interrupted by Emily. “My god,” Emily declared plainly from behind her. “This is just typical, Lorelai.”  
  
She whipped around, pulling her hand back quickly from Luke’s grasp as if she’d been caught in the cookie jar. “Mom,” she said, surprised. “How’s Dad? What’s the news?”  
  
“The news,” Emily snarled, glaring at the two of them sitting.  
  
“Yes, Mom,” Lorelai said impatiently. “It may have come from a doctor, holding a clipboard, or perhaps declared in a special edition of the New York Times? The news about Dad, how is he?”  
  
Emily’s face twisted into a sneer. “Angina,” she said. “I’m going to go find Rory.”  With that, she stalked off.  
  
Lorelai turned to Luke. “What the hell was that about?”  
  
Luke crossed his arms over his body, looked away. “Maybe you should just check in on your dad, Lorelai.”  
  
She kept looking at Luke’s face. Even though he was sitting right next to her, he might as well have been a million miles awake in that moment.  
  
“Right,” she said weakly, standing up. “I’m going to go see him.”

 

* * *

 

  
Richard stirred as Lorelai entered the silent room.  
  
Lorelai smiled slowly at her father.  
  
Her father smiled back.  
  
All of a sudden, Emily and Rory burst back into the room, accompanied by a flurry of doctors. Lorelai slipped out the door.  
  
Luke, trustworthy and perfect Luke, was still outside. He was standing, now, and seemed surprised to see her again so soon. “Hey,” he said gruffly. “How’s your dad?”  
  
Lorelai bit her lip. “He’s going to be fine,” she said in a voice was much too high. She raised a hand to cover her face.  
  
She heard Luke take a step towards her, and felt the gentle pressure of his hand on her elbow. “Hey,” he said softly. “Are you doing alright?”  
  
Lorelai nodded. “Of course. My family is fine and you are fine and...I’m so sorry about this, I don’t know why I’m,” she took a quick breath. “Crying.”  
  
“Oh Lorelai,” Luke muttered under his breath, and suddenly Luke’s hands were hauling her forward until she collided with his chest, and then they were on her back rubbing and she was crying into his shoulder, and she shouldn’t be crying, her family was healthy and safe, and really what more could she ask for?  
  
“Usually this is the time where the guy offered the girl his handkerchief,” Luke said over her head. “Of course, I don’t have a handkerchief; I find the idea of one kind of disgusting, really-”  
  
Despite herself, Lorelai let out a little laugh, and moved to pull away from Luke. His arms tightened around her, not letting her move from his grasp. Lorelai settled herself back down.  
  
“Friends?” Luke said gently, into her hair. She felt her scalp tingling where his breath hit her head.  
  
“Friends,” she said to his shoulder. The flannel had grown damp from her crying - it was a little pathetic, really, but she couldn’t bring herself to try and pull away just yet.  
  
Luke let her stay that way for a long time.  
  
Eventually, her mother and Rory came back out, and she was forced to leave. (She liked to think she could have fallen asleep there like that, standing up and all, lured by the sound of Luke’s heartbeat she fancied she could hear through the layers of winter clothes).  
  
“I think I’m going to stay here a little while longer,” Lorelai said. “Rory, could you go home with Luke?”  
  
Rory’s gaze flicked from Lorelai, to Luke, and back. “Sure,” she said.

 

* * *

  
  
“So,” Emily said an hour later, poking at her cafeteria tomato soup in distaste, occasionally taking a break to scowl at Lorelai’s chicken salad sandwich and fries. “That man you brought with you tonight.”  
  
Lorelai let out a long breath. “For the last time, Mom. I was not on a date. Luke was just giving me a ride.”  
  
“Look where we are, Lorelai,” Emily said. “The hospital. Your father is in the hospital. Don’t you think we deserve a little honesty?”  
  
“I am being honest, Mom! Luke and I are friends - that’s it.”  
  
Her mother humphed, clearly disbelieving her, but thankfully dropped the subject.

 

* * *

  
The next morning, Lorelai waited awkwardly in the town square spying for 25 minutes before Luke finally left the dinner to head towards the store room in the back. She burst in the door while he was gone, dropped the wrapped package next to the cash register, and fled before Luke could possibly catch her.  
  
Luke wore her blue hat every day that week.

 

* * *

  
  
As Emily and Richard did not end up traveling during Christmas that year, Lorelai and Rory were back in Hartford one week later for Friday night dinners.  
  
“How was your last day of school, Rory?” Richard was asking.  
  
“I only had one exam today - French,” she answered.  
  
“It’s the 22nd! It’s only three days until Christmas,” Lorelai interrupted. “You shouldn’t have had exams at all.”  
  
“Speaking of Christmas,” Emily said. “You are planning on coming here Christmas day for dinner, aren’t you? Since you’re apparently so busy Christmas Eve-”  
  
“Mom, I’ve told you. You’re welcome to join us for Christmas Eve Church. A few of the hymns are in Korean, but that shouldn’t stop you.”  
  
“Fine, fine, Lorelai,” Emily spat. “You’re busy Christmas Eve. Fine. But you will be here for Christmas dinner, and your father and I wanted to tell you to feel free to bring...” she paused, exchanging a glance with Richard.  
  
“Bring?” Lorelai prompted.  
  
Emily glanced down, frowning at her plate. “Luke,” she finished sourly.  
  
“Luke?” Lorelai asked incredulously. She glanced at Rory for backup, but her daughter had gone pale and was staring down at her plate unhelpfully. “I mean, I know we like his food and all, but I think it’d be a little rude to drag him here to work on Christmas.”  
  
Richard took a deep breath. “Lorelai,” he said seriously. “I’ve been informed this man is your soulmate. Whatever your grudges towards us are, we really would like the chance to-”  
  
“My what?!” Lorelai screeched, jumping to her feet. Her chair wobbled dangerously behind her, and it was suddenly very difficult to take a deep breath. “My - that’s - insulting, really -” she looked around the dining room like she had never seen it before, looking for a place to flee.   “And ridiculous,” she blurted. “Luke’s not-”  
  
“Luke’s not what?” Rory said suddenly. She looked up at her mother, eyes defiant. “Luke’s not your soulmate?”  
  
Lorelai’s eyes widened. “Yes. Exactly.”  
  
“Say it,” Rory taunted.  
  
“What?”  
  
“I think Luke is your soulmate,” Rory said. “Actually, I know Luke is your soulmate.”  
  
Lorelai shook her head.  
  
“Tell me it’s not true,” Rory challenged. “Just say it.”  
  
“I gotta go,” Lorelai gasped, running into the entrance hall.  
  
Her father started “Lorelai-”  
  
“Lorelai, your father is not up for your dramatics right now!” her mother yelled.  
  
Rory jumped out of her chair and chased after her mother, catching her mom by the arm. “Why do you keep denying it?” she cried. “Tell me! I deserve to know why you insist on making yourself and Luke miserable!”  
  
“I can’t, Rory.”  
  
“Why don’t you love him?”  
  
“Of course I love- ” Lorelai shouted, and then cut herself off. She looked to Rory, standing there with a death grip on her arm, up to her parents in the entrance hall. She looked back at Rory, the wild look in her child’s eye. “Rory,” she said quietly. “I love you most out of anything or anyone in the entire world.”  
  
Rory squeezed her arm tighter.  
  
“And after that...of course I love Luke. I love him-” she took a deep breath. “I’ve been in love with Luke for a very long time now, and I will probably always love him. But Rory, I can’t do anything about it. I’m not…” she bit her tongue. “I’m not Luke’s soulmate.”  
  
Rory frowned. “What are you talking about?”  
  
“It’s like me and your father, Rory,” she explained. “I’m Christopher’s soulmate, but Luke is my soulmate, and eventually Luke will...” god, it felt like her throat was closing up. She squeezed her eyes shut really tight. “I couldn’t do it,” she said. “I can’t tell Luke how I feel, knowing that somebody else will come along one day, and I can’t… I can’t pressure him like that. I don’t want him to just feel obligated to me. He might have a little crush because - I know I shouldn’t flirt with him, it’s wrong, and I’m leading him on, but it was the closest I could get-”  
  
“Mom,” Rory said gently.  
  
And oh, God, she was really really crying now, but she couldn’t control herself, she couldn’t stop. “And I am so sorry for hurting him that way,” she said (sobbed). “But he either loves me forever, or he doesn’t, because I am in this for the long haul, I’m all in, but he doesn’t, and he never will, and that’s the way it is now, and eventually he’ll meet the real deal, the woman who’s actually good enough for him, and I couldn’t-”  
  
“Mom,” Rory interrupted again, a little more urgently.  
  
“I just couldn’t deal with it, Rory,” Lorelai continued. “And I’m so sorry for keeping this a secret from you, I just thought I could deal with this quietly on my own, but then I started spending more time with Luke, and Christopher happened, and everything somehow blew up in my face, and-”  
  
“For the love of god, Lorelai, what on earth are you talking about?” Emily interrupted. “Of course you’re Luke’s soulmate.”  
  
Lorelai finally pulled her arm from Rory’s grip and hastily brushed off the tears from her face. “What?” she asked.  
  
Emily rolled her eyes. “The situations you put yourself through,” she scoffed. “Lorelai, the two of you are soulmates. It’s disgustingly obvious. How could you not know?”  
  
Lorelai blinked again. “What?” she squawked.  
  
“Rory knows, I know, your father knows, Luke certainly knows. That poor man is under the impression that you think he’s not good enough for you.” Emily rolled her eyes again. “Although from the way you’ve gone on about a hamburger, he certainly isn’t the sharpest tool in the box, either.”  
  
“What are you talking about?” Lorelai asked.  
  
“Honestly, Lorelai. Luke takes a finger prick at the hospital, brings you a matching bandage for the injury you obviously are going to share, and you two have your little display right in front of me.”  Emily tilted her head. “I suppose you actually weren’t hiding it from me, if you were genuinely that oblivious.”  
  
“Grandma and I talked to Luke while you were checking on Grandpa,” Rory said.  
  
“We did,” Emily confirmed, back on subject. “I demanded proof that he was actually your soulmate, and not just an insane stalker, and he told us the whole story of how you two first met. He had the newspaper clipping in his wallet and everything.”  
  
“Newspaper,” Lorelai whispered. _You’ll meet an annoying woman today. Give her coffee, and she will go away._  
  
“Yes,” her mother continued. “And he said that he’d always had a theory about you, and it was confirmed when you started sharing injuries. He also said you denied the whole thing when he confronted you about it.”  
  
Lorelai’s eyes widened. “Oh my God,” she whispered. Her soulmate mark felt like it was buzzing - she put a hand over her heart just to make sure it stayed still.  
  
“Do you to sit down, Lorelai?” her father asked her. “You look like you need a glass of water.”    
  
“I need to go find Luke,” she said. She could feel the excitement bubbling up in her chest. “I need to go right now!” she exclaimed, running to grab her coat from the closet. “Mom, Dad, sorry to cut dinner short, bit of an emergency. Rory, come on! We need to get back to Stars Hollow!”  
  
Rory glanced back to her grandparents. “Mom, I’m pretty sure this is something you need to do on your own. Is it ok if I stay here with Grandma and Grandpa tonight?”  
  
“She’s welcome to stay,” Richard confirmed.  
  
“Then it’s okay,” Lorelai nodded. “Although, I don’t want to feel as if you’re being kicked out, Rory-”  
  
“Just go!” Rory insisted, laughing.  
  
“Okay!” Lorelai said, fishing her keys out of her purse. She hopped towards the door. “Goodnight, have a good rest of dinner, be gentle with your grandfather.”  
  
“I will.”     
  
“I’ll be fine,” Richard added.  
  
Lorelai paused with her hand on the doorknob. “One last thing,” she said. “Luke was getting a finger prick at the hospital? Why? He told me he was just off flirting with nurses the whole time. Do you know why he was randomly getting bloodwork?”  
  
“I certainly have no idea,” Emily stated.  
  
Rory shifted from foot to foot. “I do,” she said softly. “Um, Luke was looking into getting his soulmate mark removed.”  
  
Lorelai frowned. “Removed?”  
  
“Yeah,” Rory said. “Apparently it's complicated, but if you both agree you can get it removed, and then you wouldn’t be soulmates anymore.”  
  
“Luke doesn’t want to be soulmates?”  
  
“He thinks you don’t want to be soulmates!” Rory reprimanded. “Mom! You have to go fix this!”      
  
“Right,” Lorelai said, zipping up her jacket. “I’m leaving. See you tomorrow!”  
  
“Or Christmas Eve!” Rory shouted as Lorelai slammed the front door closed behind her.


	9. I’m declaring my love here!

It was around 8:30 PM by the time Lorelai made it back to the diner, having sped dangerously fast to get back to Stars Hollow. She parked the Jeep in what was probably an illegal spot across the street from the diner, barely turning the car off before she was tearing across the sidewalk and into Luke’s establishment.

She threw the door open so hard it bounced off the wall with a heavy thud, hitting the bells twice on its journey. “Luke!” she shouted, relieved to find him standing behind the counter.

He’d looked up at the noise. “Lorelai,” he said, puzzled. “What’s the matter? Is there another emergency?”

“Can we go upstairs?” she asked. “I need to talk to you alone.”

Luke shook his head. “I’m the only one working.”

Lorelai looked around the diner. There was only one table there with people, containing two teenagers with some milkshakes. She marched over to them, recognizing them as Rory’s old classmates.  “I will pay each of you twenty dollars to leave right now,” she said, going for her purse.

“Lorelai,” Luke called, sounding annoyed. He came up behind her and grabbed her by the elbows. “What the hell are you doing?”

She glanced over her shoulder into his startlingly blue eyes. “It kind of is an emergency,” she confessed.

Unconsciously, one of hands slid up from her elbow to her shoulder. “Is everything okay?” he murmured.

“I just really, really need to talk to you,” she replied back.

Luke stared at her. Three seconds, four seconds, five seconds. (His eyelashes were so long.) Then he took a rough step backwards and crossed his arms over his chest. “We’re closed,” he said to the two kids. “Food’s on the house. Just get out.”

“Is there any chance for that twenty bucks?” one of them asked.

Lorelai started reaching for her purse. “Sure-”

“No!” Luke interrupted. “We’re closed. Get.”

"Get," Lorelai repeated in her old-person voice. Luke rolled his eyes.

As the two teenagers were scrambling with their coats and out the front door, Lorelai said, “I know this isn’t the first time I’ve said this, but I really do think that you were born with the personality of a cranky 80-year-old man. And since you’ve been born, you’ve only been getting older and crankier. Think about what you’ll be like when you’re actually 80! You’ll have the personality of a 160-year-old. A century and a half of crankiness - you’ll probably be able to smite people with just your eyeballs.”

Luke let out a long sigh, leaning back on the counter in between two stools. “What do you want, Lorelai?” he asked.

Lorelai uncharacteristically took a moment to collect herself. After a long pause, she said quietly, “I need to see your soulmate mark.”

Luke stiffened. “What?”

“I need to see it,” Lorelai insisted. She swallowed. “You see, no one in town knows what it says or what it looks like, and people are getting curious.”

Luke eyed her, like he was unsure whether he could trust her or not. “People, huh?”

She nodded. “Yes. The entire town, practically. They put me in charge of the investigation, because they say...they think I have the best shot.”   

Luke stared at her, his face not giving anything away. She felt as though her entire body was itching under her skin. She’d never had a conversation this slow in her entire life. Finally, agonizingly slowly, Luke uncrossed his arms and unbuttoned the top button on his blue-and-white plaid flannel. He held eye contact with her as he unhurriedly moved his hands to the second button.

“Oh my god,” Lorelai burst out, crossing over into his space and making quick work of the rest of the buttons. “I said personality of an 80-year-old, not the physical capabilities of one. I know it doesn’t take you this long to get dressed in the morning, Luke.”

He shrugged, but there was a small smile playing at the corners of his lips. “Maybe it does.”

Lorelai humphed as she finished with the last button, and then stepped back. He was wearing a tight gray shirt under the flannel, but as Luke slipped the plaid off his shoulders she was relieved to find it was short sleeved.

“Here,” Luke said, holding his shirt bundled in his left hand and gesturing to his right bicep. “That’s it.”

Lorelai grabbed his right elbow, forcing Luke to turn a little as she brought her arm right up to her face for close inspect. She hadn’t quite dared believe it was true until now, but on his arm was a neat black string of words in a circle, _One Cup of Coffee, Please._  

“I said this to you,” she breathed. She looked up at his face. “I did, I - I remember.”

Luke was frowning. “Me too,” he said. “Now it’s your turn.”

“What?”

“It’s your turn,” he repeated, voice low. “I showed you mine.”

“Oh,” Lorelai said. She released his arm and stepped back, reaching for the zipper on her coat. “Yeah, that’s fair.” She put her purse down on a stool. Luckily, she was wearing one of her scoop-necked sweaters today, so she only had to struggle with her shirt and the top of her bra cup a little to expose the whole mark.

Luke was staring so hard, he seemed to have stopped breathing.

“That’s the first thing you said to me,” she said.

“Yeah,” he answered hoarsely. He reached out a hand, hesitating only at the last second. “May I?” he asked. She nodded, and Luke ran a finger over the blocky print over her heart. _Sit Down, Shut Up, and Wait Your Turn._

“So, turns out we’re soulmates,” Lorelai said with a weak smile.

He retracted his hand suddenly, and Lorelai had to repress the urge to shiver as she let her shirt settle back into place. Luke wasn’t looking at her - in fact, he was looking everywhere but her, as he slipped his flannel overshirt back on and edged out from the space between Lorelai and the counter. “Guess so,” he agreed, and then cleared his throat. “Was that it?”

Lorelai frowned. “No, that wasn’t it. Where are you going? Come back here!”

“I have work to do,” he said, crossing back behind the counter. “Some of us have jobs.”

She followed him. “There’s no one here! It’s just me!”

“And you’re not allowed back here!”

“Luke!” she cried out, flinging her arms open. “I love you!”

She’d shouted it as some sort of grand declaration, but Luke only snorted, reaching to turn off the coffee maker.

“Um, hello?” she snapped. “I’m declaring my love here!”

“Tell me something I don’t know,” Luke growled back. “Lorelai, clearly you love me, in whatever best-friends-forever thing you’ve got going for you. I get it. You don’t need to make me feel better about it.”

“No, you don’t understand,” she said. “I love you. I just didn’t know you loved me back!”

At this, Luke rolled his eyes. “I think I’ve been pretty clear.”

“You haven’t!” Lorelai refuted, jumping on the opportunity. “Luke, we had it all wrong! I didn’t think we were soulmates, I thought we just got mismatched, but we didn’t! We’re supposed to be together, we’re a perfect match!”   

Luke stiffened, his back to her. “What?” he said.

She hopped over to him, tugging on the back of his flannel. “Luke, I know this is about five years too late, but you’re it. You’re it for me. I fell in love with you just about the first moment I saw you and when I thought you weren’t my soulmate back I went home and cried for about a week straight. I’ve been holding myself back for years because I want to hang out with you all the time but I didn’t want to pressure you into a one-sided relationship, and to cut to the chase I want to be with you and marry you have and have a lot of flannel baseball-cap babies and argue over their vegetable intake for twenty years and then retire and have nothing to do all day except hang out with you and our five dogs and two horses, and if I have to cut down the number of dogs so we all fit in the diner I will, but the horses really should stay.”

Luke whipped around, his eyes searching her face. “Oh,” he said.

She raised her eyebrows. “That’s it? Oh?”

Infuriatingly, Luke smirked. “You know, you could have just told me you loved me.” 

Lorelai slapped his chest. “Are you kidding me?” she asked. “Here I am, putting myself out here in the hopes that I won’t be a burden to the one true love of my life-”

“Lorelai,” he interrupted, reaching for her. “Shut up.”

She hopped backwards. “I will not! Do you know how shocking it was, having Rory and _my parents_ know that we were soulmates before I did! And that I thought you were furious when figured out that I was madly in love with you because I had ruined our friendship, you were so angry that day, but it turns out-” she gasped, dancing out of Luke’s grasp. “Oh, man, you were mad that you thought I didn’t want you, Luke, but I promise I did, I’ve wanted you more than anything I’ve ever-”

“Would you just stand still?” Luke cried out, grabbing her cheeks with both hands and pulling her in for a kiss.

Luke’s hands were hot and rough on her face, and Luke kissed her with an intensity that made everything inside her light up inside, like a thousand paper lanterns bobbing happily in her chest. Or like her entire body was one giant bottle of champagne that had been closed until Luke, and now a million fizzy little bubbles were exploding everywhere. Or like -

When he finally pulled back, Lorelai opened her eyes dazedly and dropped back down from her tiptoes (she didn’t remember getting up into that position, but it didn’t matter). “Wow,” she said, unclenching her hands from Luke’s chest. She licked her lips. “If one of us were frogs, that kiss would have had seriously impressive consequences, Mister.”

Luke smiled at her. It was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen.

“I can’t believe you kept that horoscope,” she said. “You didn’t even know I was your soulmate.”

He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Maybe I didn’t know,” he told her, “but I think I fell in love with you the moment I first saw you, anyways.”

 

* * *

 

After about five minutes of snuggling in bed, Lorelai gingerly sat up and started looking around for her underwear.

Luke made an (adorable) sleepy sound of protest and used the arm that had been wrapped around her to tug her back to his chest.

“Oh my god,” Lorelai whispered happily. “You’re a snuggler.”

Luke turned his head so he could place a kiss to Lorelai’s hair. “Why do you say it like that?”

“Like what?”

“Like you’re surprised,” he answered.

“I don’t know. I always thought guys were supposed to be manly and tough, and go straight to sleep after sex, or go back to watching the game, or something.”

At this, Luke seemed to just try to pull her closer. “You’re insane,” he said. “Any guy in their right mind is a snuggler.”

“Oh, Luke,” she said, smiling into his chest. “You old softie.”

“Unless it’s hot,” he qualified. “But it’s December, so you’re good for at least another three months.”

She laughed. “Oh, now you’ve ruined the magic.” She moved to get up again.

“No,” Luke protested, tightening his arm around her. “Where are you going?”

“Well, I promised the town I’d find out what your soulmate mark said,” she told him playfully. “Gotta go let them know.”

“It’s midnight.”

“Huh,” she said. “You think Babette will mind?”

Instead of protesting, as she has intended, Luke retracted his arm and started to sit up as well. “Well, if that’s the case, I got some people to see as well.”

Lorelai’s mouth hung open, flabbergasted. “What?” she gasped. “You? Talking voluntarily? To real people?”

Luke rolled his eyes, but he was smiling. “I don’t know if I ever told you this,” he said. “But a couple months back, Babette and Miss Patty came up to me as well. They said that no one in town knew what your soulmate mark said, because you kept it so well hidden, and you never ever talked about it.”

Lorelai’s eyes widened. “You took the dare?”

He shrugged. “I was always a little curious,” he admitted.

Lorelai laughed and pulled him back down to the mattress. “You know what this means?” she said. “The town was trying to set us up! They were trying to meddle in our personal business!” She poked him in his beautiful chest. “Why aren’t you more mad? You hate this sort of thing.”

Luke kissed her. “I think I’ll let it slide,” he said. “This once. It did work out for the best.”

Lorelai smiled. “Hard part over,” she said. “Smooth sailing from here on out.”

Luke quirked an eyebrow.

“What?”

“The hard part might not exactly be over,” he said, smirking.

Lorelai broke out in a huge grin. “Dirty!” she exclaimed, delighted.

Luke laughed and pulled her closer again.


	10. Epilogue

_Three Months Later_

  
  
  
“Honey, I’m home,” Luke called out to the crapshack as he closed the front door shut behind him.  
  
Lorelai called out from the kitchen. “Hey, it’s my fancy city-man, travelin’ back to the country for little ole me. How was New York? How was your sister?” 

Luke rolled his eyes as he shrugged off his coat, leaving it on the rack in the front hall. “She’s...actually, I need to talk to you about that,” he said, looking around as he entered the kitchen to join her. “Is Rory home?”  
  
“No, she stayed after school to work on the newspaper again,” Lorelai said from her position seated at the kitchen table. “What’s up? Is your sister ok? Is she sick?”    
  
He let out a heavy sigh. “Liz is fine, health-wise. She was all excited about our engagement. I think she’s gunning for a bridesmaid position.”  
  
Lorelai smiled, adjusting the ring on her finger once more. “Noted,” she said.  
  
Luke collapsed into one of the kitchen chairs, which squeaked in protest at the sudden weight. “Yeah, the problem is she’s flat broke.”  
  
“Oh, no,” Lorelai said, reaching a hand across the table. “Does she need money?”  
  
Luke closed his eyes, squeezing her hand back. “So you remember my nephew, Jess? Rory’s age?”  
  
“Yeah,” she answered cautiously.  
  
Luke opened his eyes, letting out a frustrated sigh again. “Look, here’s the thing. Liz thought she was gonna break it to me that Jess would have to move into a foster home for a few months, until she was back on her feet again. That made me...a little upset.”  
  
Lorelai narrowed her eyes. “Who did you punch?”  
  
“I didn’t punch anything,” Luke replied. “Jeez. When have I ever punched anybody?”  
  
“You have that kinda vibe,” she answered, waving a hand in his general direction. “Like Rocky.”  
  
“I did not punch anybody,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. He paused. “I may have done something worse.”  
  
She frowned. “Worse than punching?”  
  
Luke made a face. “Is it considered kidnapping if the kid goes voluntarily?”  
  
“What did you do?” she asked, bewildered.   
  
He looked down at the table. “So Liz told me that she’d be declaring herself an unfit parent and placing Jess in the foster system, and I said screw that, he’s coming home with me.”     
  
“His exact words were, ‘Oh Hell No’,” a third voice said from the hallway.  
  
Lorelai made an unholy screeching noise and jumped up out of her seat. There was a teenage boy hiding in the hallway, all skinny and bony, looking like he was held together by hairgel and the fraying seams of his leather jacket. “AHH!” Lorelai yelled. _“How did you get in my house?!”_  
  
“So this is Jess,” Luke said casually.

Hairgel boy added, "For the record, I did go voluntarily."  
  
“Luke!” she shrieked, slapping her fiance's shoulder. “Oh my god, I almost had a heart attack! Hi, Jess. I blame you for none of this." She glared down at Luke to make it very clear who she was blaming.

"What?" he asked. "You heard him. It was voluntary. Not technically kidnapping."

Lorelai whacked his shoulder again. "You can’t just pick up and take a kid! He had a life! He needs all his stuff and his papers - you can’t just send him to school without papers and records and that kind of thing! And-” she turned back to Jess to study him more thoroughly. Jess had his hands in his pockets and a duffel bag slung over his shoulder, and had the look of a very nervous person trying their best to look nonchalant. “Where’s he going to sleep? We’re out of bedrooms!”  
  
“He’ll sleep at my place,” Luke said, frowning.  
  
“Luke, he’s not old enough to live by himself.” Lorelai turned to Jess. “You’re not old enough to legally live by yourself, are you?”  
  
“Jess and I can both live above the diner,” Luke said, cutting his nephew off.  
  
“That space above the diner was never meant for one person to live there, let alone two. That’s a one-room office you’ve been cramming yourself into. It’s not meant for human habitation.” She looked at Jess. “Trust me. You’ll thank me later.” She started pacing. “We’re going to need a bigger house!”  
  
Luke let out what seemed to be a sigh of relief. “So Jess can stay?”  
  
Lorelai frowned, and turned to Jess. “Does your mom know that you’re here?”  
  
Jess readjusted the bag over his shoulder. “Yeah,” he said reluctantly. “She knows.”  
  
“Well, then of course you can stay,” she said. “Not sure where we’re going to put you, but we’ll figure something out.” She turned to her fiance. “Luke, I can’t believe you kidnapped your nephew.”  
  
“I did not _technically_ kidnap my nephew,” he stated. “Lorelai, if it makes you feel better about the whole bigger house thing, I’m pretty sure this house has termites anyways.”  
  
“It has WHAT?” She slapped Luke’s shoulder again. “Why would that make me feel better?”  
  
“I love you,” Luke offered weakly.  
  
Lorelai crossed her arms. “I very reluctantly love you too, bringer of termites and wayward children.”  
  
“I did not bring the termites,” Luke defended, crossing his arms in return. “You have termites because your house is tiny and ancient. I can’t believe you make fun of the diner apartment when this place is your comparison.”  
  
Her mouth dropped open in outrage. “Okay, Thumbelina, have fun living inside your walnut shell!”    
  
“That’s it,” Luke cried, jumping to his feet. “I’m gonna go out and find us a new house, right now. A new with lots of space and no termites, and then we will live there with all the kids and dogs and horses we want, and you’re going to like it!”  
  
“I can just crash on the couch,” Jess said.  
  
  
  
  


  
  
  
  
_And they all lived happily ever after._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, everyone! I'm currently working on another seperate Java Junkie AU, and your support is really inspirational! (PS: if anyone knows a good beta reader, let me know)


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